Fight against destiny
by CandyGirl1980
Summary: Antar is split in two halfs. The westside reigns King Khivar, a very sadistic man. The Eastside reigns King Salem, a very good man. Khivar plans to invade the eastside to become ruler over whole antar. But before he can do anything, he must put his wife o
1. Chapter 1

**Antar Year 3589**

**Chapter One : The Dark Side **

Khivar, a middle aged man with black hair and black eyes, sat in his study as usual.

He spent most of his time there, when he didn´t terrorize his attendants.

Nobody disturbed him in his little room, in which he could create his plan to conquer King Salem and his kingdom.

For a few weeks now he planed to attack the Castle of his enemy and kill the remaining royals there.

But he knew that he had to be fast and sneaky.

Althrough King Salem had much more Soldiers as him, Khivar had the most cold blooded and the most unscrupoloused men on the whole planet.

They had no knowledge of mercy, no consience and they hated to lose.

And the worst of it all, they were very powerful mindreaders, which meant they anticipated the move of their enemies.

On that thought a big smile spread on Khivars otherwise stoic face.

He looked on the timekeeper on his right wrist and discovered that he had still time before dinner was served.

Suddenly a noise outside his room disturbed his thoughts.

Slowly he walked to the west window and looked on the court, where his soldiers exercised.

Many of his men were the best in dealing with the lasersword or the hand in hand combat.

Nobody would have a chance against him and his men once they finished their training.

In the middle of the fighting troop Khivar discovered his son Nikolai, which he adored to no end.

He was the exact image of his father, appearance and attributes wise.

Khivar knew once the time came, his son would reign the Kingdom in his manner.

Nikolai was still young, but he possesed the same power to rule and conquer.

He could get anybody to do as he says with a snap of his fingers.

Just as Khivar wanted to turn around he saw something unexpected.

Among his many soldier there was a petite young girl with long dirty blonde hair.

She was fighting with a men twice her size and despite that he had no chance against her.

Whatever her opponent did, she dodged every blow he threw at her.

Khivar was quite impressed and observed his daughter for a while.

Her skills were above average and she seemed to be more powerful than Nikolai.

Despite the disadvantage of her size and the angelic face she was a born fighter.

Khivar shook his head and wondered why he never saw how strong his daughter really was.

Maybe he should have paid more attention to her.

KNOCK KNOCK

Khivar was abruptly torn from his thoughts as he heard a knock on his door.

With a quick "come in" he went to his desk and sat on his armchair.

A little man stretched his head trough the gap between the door and frame.

Khivar gave him a wink to enter the room and close the door behind him.

" Your Highness, forgive me for the intrusion, but we have a problem", the man stuttered afraid.

" Ok Avicus, what have you to report?", he asked his advisor.

" The people are unhappy with the taxes", answered the man, well aware that his king would not be interested.

" And that´s my problem?", Khivar knew about that, but he didn´t gave a damn, after all there were only subjects.

" Sir, the peasants want to stir up a revolt, if nothing changes", retorted Avicus a little bit intimidated from his king.

" Tell them", Khivar leant his torso threateningly forward and stared his advisor with a dangerously glint in his eyes. " the first, which dares to make a move will be hung in public!"

" Of course your Highness. I will deliver the message", Avicus nodded respectfully." I will do it as soon as possible" he bowed before his king and went quick out of the study, relieved to be alive.

Khivar however sat head shaking in his armchair.

What in the world thought those country bumpkin to set against their king.

If those good for nothings believed they could win against him, they were dumber than he thought.

Nobody, who dared to confront him, would see the next day of that was he sure.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 Life is like a house of cards**

Marianna came as usual with a few fresh bruises in the palace.

Her dirty blonde hair was pulled in a braided pigtail which reached down her back right above her backside.

Her shirt was taped against her slender body from all the sweating and the pants were dirty.

The work out was really hard, everyday it got harder and harder and the commander demanded more of her, because she was a girl.

But it didn´t matter to her, she would show everybody that she was capable to defend herself if she had to it.

Nobody believed she could endure the exercise, not even her best friend Marius did that.

However one of this days she would demonstrate everybody how powerful she really was.

And then she would laugh in the faces of her brother, her best friend and her fiance Lykus, which didn´t believe in her.

With those thoughts Marianna strode straight through the empty corridor to her bedroom.

Suddenly a noise in her fathers study startled her.

It sounded like a moan of pain or something.

Marianna walked carefully to the big wood door and pressed her ear on it.

A few seconds later there was the same sound as before, only this time a little quieter.

Marianna got a strang feeling in her guts and she slowly opened the door.

" Father, is everything alright. I´ve heard something...", she didn´t came further, because the shock robbed her of any words. She found the source of the strang sounds.

Her father stood above her mother with a statue in his right hand from which droped red liquid.

Marianna got closer to her parents and she had to clamp her hand in front of her mouth to prevent from losing her dinner all over the floor.

Her mother laid motionless on the carpet, a little puddle of blood was around her head.

" How could you that?", whispered Mariana sad." Why did you kill my mother?"

" She was nothing, she had to die", retorted Khivar cold.

" You egoistic bastard!", screamed Marianna outraged towards her father. She couldn´t believe that he would be so cool after he killed his wife." How can you be so cold about that!".

" Don´t speak to me that way, young lady!", Khivar arose from his grouched position and went to his daughter.

" And if I do it after all?What do you want to do? Kill me like Mother?" spat Marianna and glared with so much hate in her eyes at her father.

Khivar shrugged" If I have to".

" You will atone for this!", threatened Marianna before she turned to the door." I swear by my life, you will punished for murder!". She would give everything to see her father hung for his crime and if it was the last she would do.

" What are you doing?", asked Khivar angry.

Marianna swirled around, threw a nasty look at her father and opened the door. " Guards, Guards!", she cried really loud." I need help immediately!"

Within a few seconds two guards came running along the corridor, their weapons ready to fire in their hands.

Out of breath, they heard the story, which Marianna told them.

They couldn´t believe what they were hearing, which showed on their faces.

In the middle of the explanation they shook their heads in disbelief.

No, their King wouldn´t do something so unbelievable, ok he was not exactly the friendliest man on the planet, but to kill his wife? That was to unreal.

" Don´t believe her!", interfered Khivar." She was the killer of my wife! I only wanted to prevent her from doing it".

The Guards saw from their king to the little girl besides him. That was even more unreal than the story before. This girl should kill her own mother? A girl which was always so nice to everybody and loved her mother above all? No, that couldn´t be.

" Don´ t let her fool you with her pretty face", said Khivar as he saw the unbelieving faces of his guards. He knew what they thought." She is more dangerous than she looks".

" Father. How can you say something like that?", tears gathered in Mariannas eyes. " I´m your daughter".

" Your a murderer", retorted Khivar without remorse. " And so will you be treated".

" Father!", uttered Marianna shocked.

Khivar adressed his guards. " Throw her in the dungeon". He made a little break, because another thought occured him. " Or kill her, I don´t care".

Amazed about the casualness in which their king ordered to kill his own daughter, the guards could only stare open mouthed to the princess. She was on the brink of a full breakdown.

Khivar saw that his guards wouldn´t do anything anytime soon, therefore he gave the order to carry the princess off.

But before they could move a muscle Marianna threw a white blast at them and they flew full force against the westwall.

Immediately they both leaped on their feeds, but the princess was gone.

Only Khivar was present and he was not happy.

The Guards informed the soldiers over their communicators, that a murderer was on the run and everybody should be careful.

Afterwards they both took their weapons and took up the chase after the princess.

Marianna was meanwhile almost by the outer wall of the kingdom when she heard how her father gave the order to shoot her.

Shortly afterwards the silence was pierced through shots, which were directed at Marianna.

The soldiers shot with laserbullets and missed her by inches.

Just as she reached the gate, which lead her to the woods, something hit her left leg, she lost her footing and tumbled on the dirty ground.

But she knew if she wouldn´t get up, she was as good as dead.

With a little difficulties she managed to stand on her feets and she ran further in the woods.

She could hear the soldiers, they were nearby and that was so not good.

The adrenalin pumped strong through her veins and her heart pummeled hard against her chest.

But she couldn´t give up now, not if she wanted to live.

Althrough she had no idea where she could go or where she was, but her feet carried her through the woods, past the hugh trees and the little bushes.

Suddenly Mariannas left foot yielded and before she could catch herself, she fell down a hillside, which lead to a little lake.

Like a puppet she turned almost all the way down, before a trunk stopped her fall really painfully.

Somewhat dazed but alive she decided to stay a while on the ground to garther a little strength.

But destiny had other plans, because she could hear a soldier, which gave a order to swarm out and to encircle the murderer.

With the last strength Marianna possesed she got up of the ground and took a look around.

She thanked heaven that she knew the scenery, the sea was not far away.

But there was one probleme through, she was stuck in a pit.

In front of and behind her were solid walls of mud and the little lake couldn´t give her safety.

She would surely manage to arrive on the other side of the lake, but the soldiers would have free access to kill her.

She had to find a way to get to the sea without to be discovered by the soldiers.

Suddenly Marianna remembered the tunnel which Marius and her built in their earlier years.

Anywhere nearby was the entrance, but the sun was long gone and darkness engulfed her.

Slowly she leant her whole body on the dirty walls behind her and tiptoed quitely to the right, always careful not to make a noise.

A few minutes and much more pain later, Marianna found finally the entrance to the tunnel.

Relief and Happiness spread through her aching body.

Just as she wanted to make her way to the entrance, she noticed that somebody stood exactly above her.

Carefully she pressed her body flush against the wall and stopped breathing.

With her right hand she tried to calm her rapidly beating heart.

After sometime the person left, hopefully sure that nobody was there.

Marianna could breath again and with shaking hands she tried to wipe the sweat off of her forehead.

That was indeed the most awful moments of her life.

One minute later and she would have pissed in her pants.

Now she had to wait until she could be sure that she was alone.

The waiting was slowly killing her, every body part screamed of pain at her, now that the adrenaline was ebbing away.

But she was the freedom so near now that she couldn´t give up.

After not hearing stomping feets or speaking voices Marianna scratched all of her strenght and made her way to the entrance.

Just as she wanted to crawl in the little hole a voice behind her startled her.

" Stop or I´m forced to kill you!".

Real slowly Marianna turned to the voice of her brother Nikolai, which stood on the hillside, his weapon directed at her.

Tears gathered in her eyes, not only had her father killed her mother and accussed her, but her brother would be her death.

Marianna closed her eyes and waited for death to come.

A loud bang penetrated the air around her and she expected every moment the bullet which would end her life.

But nothing happened, no pain (besides the pain from earlier), no scratch, no nothing.

Slowly Marianna opened her eyes again and stared unbelieving at her brother.

He couldn´t have shoot aside, because he was the best shooter of the whole kingdom and he could hit a object from a great distance.

But a look in his face showed her the reason for his miss.

With his left hand he gave her a signal to bolt.

Marianna cried a little for joy, blew a kiss to her brother and made her way through the tunnel.

Even from afar she could hear how he told the other soldiers that he had the subject elimitated.

For the first time she had the feeling that she would make it, if her limbs would carry her to the sea that is.

Much dirt and thousands of bugs later she got to the end of the tunnel and finally she could smell the sea.

It was a wonderful feeling, nobody was nearby and the pier was deserted.

Limping and totally exhausted Marianna made her way to the boats which where tied to the pier.

After she found one which would not be missed, she untied it and jumped in.

The waves would bring her to a new home and to a new life.

On that thought her mind gave up and she fainted dead away.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 The answer knows only the sea**

The red sun stood high on this sunny afternoon, the wind blew lightly and the sea was extreme calm.

Despite the nice weather only one young man took a long walk along the seashore.

He seemed to be in deep thoughts, because he stared at the sand under his feets and his face changed from confused to angry.

Sometimes he would mumble something only he could understand.

At one point he looked up and his amber-coloured eyes grazed the giant palace to his right in which he lived.

It happened frequently that he felt like a tiger trapped in a hugh cage and then he dissapeared for a few hours in order to think alone without somebody in his proximity asking how he was feeling.

Sometimes it was like a curse to be the son of the commander, the second most important man after King Salem.

And then there was times when he was proud of his father and he couldn´t wait to step in his shoes.

One of this days he would be the commander of the royal army and he would reign with his cousin and best friend Zan.

There was only one problem which he couldn´t ignore, the reason why he decided to take a walk.

Flashback

A large man with grey hair and lightblue eyes stood infront of a big table.

His green cloak with the royal symbol, a dragon and a snake entangled, the golden crown with two emeralds in the middle, indicated that he was the King.

To his right sat his beautiful wife Lutecia, her lightbrown hair was pinned up in a bun and her green-brown eyes radiated warmth.

To the left was Mael, the brother and second in command, his black hair which reached to his chin was slicked back. His black eyes seemed to be always on the lookout and every move was observed.

On Maels left side sat his wife Abidale, which wore her long blond hair straight past her shoulders. Her gray-blue eyes sparkled of joy, because she knew why the meeting was called.

Her gaze fell on her daughter Ava, who was on her left side. She was the sunshine of the family. With her blond curls and her clear blue eyes she looked like a doll.

At her side sat her brother Rath who looked like he would be rather elsewhere then sitting here and listen to something the King had to say.

For once his shoulderlength black hair was bound to a pigtail with a brown leather tie and his amber-brown eyes stared bored on the table.

Opposite him was Zan, the son of King Salem. He played with his necklace and waited for the news.

His brown eyes searched the attention of Ava, who seemed to look a hole through the table. With his right hand he stroked his short dark brown hair from his face.

After a few minutes in which Ava ignored his flirting, he turned to his right where Vilandra, his sister, sat. She seemed to be in thoughts. Her crystal blue eyes stared to the ceiling. Her long blonde hair fell in light curles around her face and stopped at her breasts. Zan was certain that she thought about which of her many dresses she could wear tomorrow.

Suddenly the King cleared his throat really loud and everybody, besides Rath, paid attention.

" Beloved Family," King Salem begun." Like you know, a important ball takes place in two month". He waited till everybody nodded before he continued." And I´d like to make a announcement". Again a little break to breath. " At this ball the engagement of Zan with Ava and Rath with Vilandra will be made public".

Zan and Ava exchanged amorous glances, Mael, Lutecia, Abidale and King Salem beamed with happiness. Vilandra looked like she would throw up any minute and Rath seemed to explode with rage.

" No, you can´t do that!" Rath jumped off his chair and knocked him to the ground in the process. His voice shook with anger. " Not without my permission".

Mael leaped on his feet" Of course we can. It´s tradition. Besides that was decided before you were born!".

" I don´t care about tradition!", screamed Rath. " I will not marry someone I care about like a sister!".

Abidale took her sons arm. " Please sit down. We can discuss this calmly". She hated when there was tension in her family. Rath saw in his mothers pleading face and did as she told him.

King Salem began to speak again." There is no discussion. The decission was made a long time ago. The engagement is a concluded case!". And with that the meeting was finished.

End Flashback

Rath couldn´t get his head around the fact that he will be a married man in two month.

And then Vilandra of all people. He loved her that was out of question, but he was not in love with her.

He didn´t believe in true love exactly, but he wanted to wait for the right girl which would made him feel a lot more than a brother.

The very idea of sex with Vilandra was to much for him and he had to quell his nausea.

Angy about the feeling of no control he kicked a orange shell as far as possible.

And then he saw it. A little boat drifted on the sea.

It seemed to be deserted, but on the second view Rath saw a bloody leg which hung lifeless on the outside.

As fast as possible he ran into the red water, grasped the rope and hauled the whole boat to the shore back.

Afterwards he finally dared to look inside.

His first thought was on Caleb, one of the few fisherman of the kingdom, who drunk to much last night and slept it off.

But what he saw was not a drunken man, but rather a injured girl.

Rath took a closer look at the stranger and discovered a inflamed bruise on her left thigh, a laceration on her forehead and several abrasions on both arms and legs.

But he couldn´t be sure with all the dried blood and mud on her body.

He breathed a sigh of relieve as he saw that her chest rose with every breath she took. Thank God she was still alive.

Carefully he move his strong hands under the girl and lifted her up in his arms.

Then he made his way to the hospital ward of the palace, unaware that this moment changed his destiny.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 Rescue at the last second**

There was never much to do in the hospital ward, besides the general injured soldiers.

They never had something serious though, except for little scratches and a bloody nose.

The worst case was a broken arm which they could heal immediately.

But that changed the day Rath brought a badly bruised young girl.

She was in a bad shape and barely alive.

Everywhere was so much blood, her clothes were torn and every visible part of her body was injured or dirty.

The healers didn´t know where they should begin and if they had the time to save her.

Rath, who didn´t yield from the girls side, could only stand around like an idiot and see to it that the healer did their work to save the girl.

One of the healer turned to him" Was she conscious when you found her?".

" No, I found her in this condition", replied Rath slightly dazed. He looked like he would pass out any moment.

The healer nodded in understanding. " Maybe you should wait outside. As soon as we have news we let you know"

That snapped Rath out of his state." No, I want to stay here!". He wouldn´t let her out of his sight before he knew she was better and not on the brink of death. Something told him not to go.

" There´s nothing you could do to help her", the healer laid a reassuring hand on Rath shoulder. " It´s better if you go and let us do our job".

" Do you think she will make it?", Rath didn´t understand why it was so important to him that she lived. He didn´t even know this girl. Maybe it was the fact that she was still young, not much older than his own sister.

" I don´t know", the healer turned to the other healers and saw the way they treated their patient. They would do anything in their power to help her. But it looked really bad for her. They didn´t know how long she was in this condition or if the injuries limited on the outside. The healer turned back to Rath " We do what we can".

" Alright", Rath trusted this man." Let me know if something happens". And that was an order not a request.

" Of course, as soon as we are done here". The healer gave Rath a ressuring smile and then made his way to his fellows, which were in the process of undressing the girl.

Rath glanced again at the girl and hoped it was not the last time that he saw her. Then he made his way out of the room. As the door closed behind him, he pressed his forehead on the cool wall to his right. Slowly the graveness of the situation sank in. The whole time he had one thought: save the girl. But now after he had done his part he couldn´t just sit around and do nothing. Maybe he should search for his father and tell him what happened. That was propably a good idea. With that Rath went to the trainig ground.

His father was just in the process to show some freshman how everything went as he arrived.

If the situation were different Rath would have laughed on the shocked look on the young boys face, but he had no time to waste.

" Father, I have to speak with you", usually Rath didn´t disturb his father. But this was a urgent case.

Mael turned to his son and was just in the process to snap at him why he couldn´t wait till he was finished, as he saw the state in which his son were. His clothes were wet and dirty. His hair hung in disorder from his head. But the worst was the expression on his sons face. He looked like a little boy which had lost his pet. Immediately he send the freshman away and walked to Rath.

" What happened?", Mael asked. Then a thought occured him." Are you hurt?".

Rath shook his head" No, I´m fine". He made a break to think about what he wanted to say and how he could say it so that his father could understand it. But how could he if he didn´t understood it himself. Maybe he should start with the beginning. " I was on the beach to think about a few things". His father laid a arm around him and led him back to the palace." On the water there was a little boat and I thought there was nobody in it, but then I saw a bloody leg." Rath had to take a breath to quell his nausea." I ran into the water and brought the boat back to the shore. I thought it was Caleb. But I looked inside and saw a girl. She was young and hurt. Really bad." Rath couldn´t go on. The pictures were to fresh in his mind. So much blood.

" Where is the girl now?", Mael noticed that his son was in no condition to tell him everything.

" I brouhgt her to the hospital ward. The healers took care of her", Rath did feel a little bit better since talking to his father.

" Do you know her?", Mael thought since Rath was so concerned about the health of this girl, that he knew her.

" That´s so strange about everything", Rath scratched his right eyebrow, a habit when he was confused." I don´t know her nor have I seen her around and yet I feel like I lost a friend".

" Maybe it´s because she´s still young or maybe she reminds you of Ava", Mael know that despite his rambling about his annoying young sister, Rath loved her deeply and would kill everybody who dared to hurt her.

Rath shrugged his shoulders" Maybe. Maybe not. I don´t know."

Mael stopped at once in his steps and took a good look at his son. There was more. He could see it in his eyes. There was a question which bothered him. But Mael knew that his son would not answer him if he pushed. Therefore he waited till Rath would be ready to tell him.

" Why?", blurted Rath suddenly out.

" What why?".

" Why her?", Rath couldn´t wrap his mind around the fact that someone so innocent deserved such treatment." And who could be capable to do something like that"

" I don´t know. That´s something only the girl knows. If we´re lucky and she survives we can ask her. Then we´ll see what we can do for her, alright", Mael hoped that she made it. He didn´t thought his son could forgive himself if she didn´t. After he received a hesitant nod he embraced his shocked son. " I´m proud of what you did".

Rath blushed slightly. He didn´t do that to earn respect or praise. He did it because it was right. And he would do it again necessary.

" There you are!", came suddenly the voice of Ava. She looked like she ran a marathon." Mom is looking for the both of you". She stopped and viewed the appearance of her brother." Oh my god! What happened to you".

" I tell you later", Rath parted from his father and together they made their way to the dinning room.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 The morning after**

The next morning everyone in the kingdom knew about the incident the day before.

Most of the people couldn´t believe that something so cruel happened infront of their faces and nobody saw it.

The greengrocer told everybody who was willing to listen that the little girl was propably attacked from a wild animal. The forger on the other hand thought that the girl was an escapee from Khivars prison.

But nobody knew exactly what happened and therefore could only guess what the young girl had to go through. Add the fact, that nobody had an idea who she was and where she came from and the people had something to talk for ages.

Rath didn´t care about the gossip that spread around the kingdom or the whispered words in the castle, everytime he went by the guards. He only cared that the girl was alive and on the way to get better.

He was so relieved to hear that the wounds looked worst than they were and the patient was stable for the moment.

Flashback

The whole royal family sat around the big dining table. Dinner was finished a long time ago, everybody was sated and ususally that was the moment the family parted and everyone went their own way before bedtime. But not today. Rath and his father decided to tell about the incident. Furthermore they could explain why Rath looked like he crawled through a dirty tunnel and calm his mother who was worried that something happened to his son. Thanks to the red herring of his father she let it slide for the moment. But now everybody was curious what Rath had to say.

" So Rath", the King gave his nephew all his attention." Your Father told me you that something happened this afternoon"

Rath let his gaze roam around the table to every member of his family. " I found a injured girl. She was barely alive when I brought her to the hospital ward", he saw the way Ava, Vilandra, his mother and Queen Lutecia held their breath with horror." She looked really bad".

" Where did you find her?", King Salem was stunned to no end. Nothing ever happened in this kingdom. Everybody lived peacefully together and conflicts were resolved verbally.

" She was drifting on the sea with a little boat", Rath saw the picture again. The bloody leg and the discovery after.

" Do you know who she is?", Queen Lutecia didn´t want to imagine what the family must go through right now. Not knowing where their daughter was or if she was alive.

" No. I don´t have a clue about that", Rath shook his head. But he would figure it out, one way or another. And then they could send a message to the family.

Abidale took the hand of her son and squeezed it in resurrance." That doesn´t matter right now. What matters is the condition of the girl. Do you know something?".

Just as Rath wanted to answer his mother there was a knock on the door. Usually nobody dared to disturb the royal family at dinner. But after the horrofying story they didn´t mind the little break. After King Salem shouted a quick "Come in" the royal messenger entered the dining room. He was slightly embarrassed to bother the dinner. But he had urgent news.

" I´m terribly sorry to disturb, your highness. But I have news for Lord Rath", he dropped a courtsey before his king.

Rath, hearing his name mentioned, jumped off of his chair and went to the messenger" Is it the girl? How is she?".

" I was told to inform you, that the girl is alive"

Rath, relieved about the news, felt like a huge stone had dropped from his heart." When can I see her?".

" The healer told me that she has to rest now. But tomorrow you can go see her", the messenger told him.

" Thank you" and Rath meant it really.

The messenger bowed again before his king and made his way out of the room. The others looked after him and waited till the door shut before they stood up from their chairs. Abidale embraced his son. She was proud of him. He didn´t had to do it, but he saved a life of a stranger. Now all they had to do was wait and then they could finally find out who she was and where she came from. Everything else would take care itself after this.

End of Flashback

Rath had decided after everyone went to bed, that he would visit the girl as soon as he could.

And that he did now. After the breakfast was finished he excused himself and made his way to the hospital ward. Halfway there a bad feeling overtook him. It was a mix of rage, sadness and confusion.

Rath didn´t think to much about that. As empath he was used to feel what others where feeling. He shook his head to banish his uneasiness and continued his way.

Just as he rounded the corner to the hallway of the hospital ward, he discovered two guards on the ground. They were lying against the closed door of the consulting room. Immediately Rath ran to the men and checked their pulse. Thank godness they were alive, just knocked out.

Suddenly he heard a strange noise from the room infront of him. Carefully he wanted to grab after his weapon, but he realized he had forgotten it in his room.

" Damn, damn and double damn!", he cursed quietly. Usually his mother had to remind him to take off of his weapon halter before he went to bed. And today of all days, where he needed the weapon the most, he forgot it on his nighstand. If he had more time he would bang his head against the wall. But time was running out and he had to something right away.

Quietly he tiptoed to the door and tried to open it without to much noise. But the door had other plans. She creaked really loud and before Rath could put one foot in the room a hand grasped him around his throat. Out of reflex he tried to loosen the hold on his throat. But his attacker was pretty strong and Rath was in disadvantage because of the sudden assault.

" Where am I and what I´m doing here", growled a female voice in his ear.

" You are in the kingdom of King Salem", Rath was amazed how much power the girl had. He knew the moment she began to speak that it was her. For someone who was on the brink of death a few hours ago she had a deathly stronghold." You were pretty hurt when I found you", Rath had to struggle to breath. Slowly the breathing became harder and harder.

Just as he was about to pass out, the girl released him. Rath dropped coughing on all fours. Damn that was a close call. A few minutes more and he would have kissed the floor. That´s what you got for saving a life, a near death experience. He decided to never do something stupid again.

" You know, a little thank you would have been better, don´t you think", Rath tried to hide his embarrassment. He was taken by surprise by a girl half his size. Hopefully nobody would learn of this little incident ever. No wonder the two guards had no chance against her. Slowly he stood up from the floor and whipped the dirt from his pants.

Then he made the mistake and saw in the face of his attacker for the first time. In the moment their eyes meet the breath was knocked out of him. Never in his whole life had he seen such a beautiful girl, besides his sister and Vilandra. She was not so tall, she would reached to his shoulders, her hair was bound to a pigtail, the lips were full and red and made to be kissed. But what really got him were her eyes. They looked like two sparkling emeralds. And the message in them was clear. One wrong word and your dust.

" Do you have to stare at me like that", the girl glared at the intruder. It seemed like he had never seen a female before. She had to repress the feeling to strangle him.

That snapped Rath out of his state. She was cute. At least as long as she shut her mouth" Excuse me. I don´t stare". He didn´t. Really.

" Yes, you did", replied the girl angry.

" Alright, if it shuts you up. I stared. Now are you happy?", Rath didn´t have the patient now to play this game. It was bad enough when he played it with Ava and therefore he knew how long that could go." But I didn´t come here to fight. I wanted to see how you´ve been".

The girl gave up her fighting stance and relaxed slightly." I´m fine. A little wiped out, but fine".

" Do you remember what happened to you? Or why you were alone on the boat?", Rath thought that after the girl lost her crazy look she was willing to answer some of his question.

The girl shook her head sadly." No. I don´t know".

" Alright. Do you know your name at least?"

The eyes of the girl went wide by that question and her face screwed up to a mask of horror. Rath could feel her panic." No. I can´t remember a thing. Why can´t I remember my own name. What happened to me". The girl buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

Rath felt sorry for the poor thing. Not knowing who you are and what happened was really bad. He wanted to help her. But he didn´t know how. He wished Zan was with him he would knew what to do. It would be better if she would fight with him, with that he could deal. He hated when girls cried. But he had to do something. After he battled a few moments with himself he did something that he would denying till his death. He embraced the girl and let her cry on his shoulder.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 Changes, Lies and Trust**

Marianna felt slightly bad about lying. Since she was out of the hospital ward, because her injuries were cured, except her left leg which was not yet fully healed, everybody was really nice to her.

They had pity with her, cos she had no memory, and therefore wanted to make her feel better. But nobody knew that she had full knowledge of what happened to her and who she was. She was to scared to tell them the real reason why she was found barely alive in a boat. Besides she was the enemy in their eyes and if she would come out with the truth, she wouldn´t have time to regret telling them before they would toss her in the dungeon or kill her. No one would ever know that she was Khivars daughter, she would make sure of that. Also she didn´t plan to stay too long. She would play the helpless little girl until she was doing better and then they would never see her again. Until then she had to make sure that she didn´t bind ties to the people of the castle. Althrough it would be difficult for her, because Vilandra and Ava were so friendly to her. They showed her the whole palace and told her stories to every room. Marianna was not used beeing around girls. The only female influence that she ever had was her mother. It was really nice with them and they had no reason to like her, she was a complete stranger and for all they knew she could be an assassin. But they accepted her and made her feel like home. Even Mael and Abidale treated her like a member of their family. They gave her a room where she could sleep as long as she was in the palace. And the King himself did everything to look after her parents or any relations so that her people would know that she was alive. But Marianna knew that nobody would report back. She was surprised that nobody recognized her as Khivars daughter. Or realized that she wore the uniform of the royal soldiers of Khivar. But that was better this way. That way she could rest and restore her power. And when the day came that she was strong enough, she would go back to her father and kill him real slowly. She would let him suffer for all the pain he caused her. And if it would be the last thing she did. She promised her mother that her father wouldn´t get away with this.

Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by a hand that waved infront of her face.

" Hey, I´m trying to talk to you for a few minutes now", Marianna didn´t know that she was so spaced out. But now she noticed that Rath had made an appearance. He was standing infront of her and looked concerned. His beautiful amber eyes stared back at her.

" Sorry", Marianna shook her head." What is it?"

" Vilandra and Ava are looking for you." Rath seemed to try to remember the reason" Something about new clothes or so." He had to refrain from laughing" I didn´t exactly listen".

Marianna had to laugh. She didn´t know Rath very long, But what she gathered from him was that he hated listening to "girl talk" as he refers to it. He was difficult to read. Sometimes he was so rude and seemed to hate everybody and then she saw the other side of him. The side of the protective brother, the concerned best friend or the good son." Tell them that they should go without me. I´m not up to it today"

" Is everything allright", Rath had noticed that somethimes she would just sit in the family room and stare thoughtful out of the window or other times she seemed to be in her own world. He was afraid that she would remember her parents and then he would never see her again.

" Yeah. I think all the things caught up with me finally", Marianna looked to the sky above her." You know, the strange people and the strange surroundings". And the fact, that she had no home and no family. No one who could help her.

" I understand", Rath caught her suprised look." Ok, I don´t. But if you need someone to listen, I´m here for you", he earned a raised eyebrow." I can listen if I want. Really".

" Thank you", Marianna couldn´t understand why he was so nice to her. After all she had tried to strangle him at the first sight. And now he was always by her side and looked after her. Everyday she was on the brink of telling him her secret. But something told her she shouldn´t do it.

" If you don´t want to be alone, you can go with us. Zan and I are going to a warrior battle"

" No thank you" even if Marianna didn´t want to be alone, she wouldn´t go to such a thing. It was enough when the pictures from the murderer of your own mother disturbed her dreams at night. But to see how two men fought for their lives, that was not something she would do in her free time. " I have plans with your father in a few hours", this time Marianna earned a startled look." Not that, you moron", she punched Rath´s arm lightly." He only wants to speak with me".

Rath rubbed his arm" Ok. Then I´ll see you in the morning".

Before Marianna could reply something he was on his way back to his room. She looked after his retreating back. If she wasn´t careful she would fall for him. And that was the last she needed. No she couldn´t do that to him. Besides he didn´t know who she was. As soon as he would know, he would hate her for sure.

She couldn´t allow to trust this people. She would never trust anybody again. You could only trust yourself and that she would do. She had to harden her heart to the whole family. No matter what they did, she had to stay strong.

With that thought in mind she went to her temporary room. She had to work on her plan to kill her father before she met with Mael.

And after several schemes and tactics how she could attack her father without the guards and the soldier knowing, she discovered that she had to be in the common room.

Immediately she stuffed the evidence under her mattress and made her way there.

With every step she took she grew nervous and the feeling of uneasiness consumed her.

As she stood befor the big wood door a picture of her fathers study door came to her mind and what she awaited behind it.

Marianna shook her head to get rid of the aweful memory and opened the door really slowly.

Her heart was beating like crazy and her hands were shaking.

But then she saw the friendly faces of Mael and Abidale, who were sitting by the fireplace.

Both turned to her as she walked to them. Abidale stood up from her armchair and went to her.

" How are you today?", she asked concerned. She was like her mother and it was nice to know that it mattered to somebody how she felt.

" I´m better, thank you", she replied while she took a seat infront of the fireplace.

" You are wondering why I wanted to talk to you, aren´t you?", began Mael who stayed on his feet and look down on Marianna. She felt like a little girl who did something wrong and was being lectured about it. She nodded and waited what he had to say." My wife and I have long pondered what we could do with you. Nobody knows you or knows where you´re from. And as long as you don´t remember anything, we can do nothing. Therefore we all, meaning we both" Mael pointed to his wife and himself." The queen and the king, decided to take you in our family" he faced Marianna and waited for a reaction.

" But you don´t know me" Marianna was touched if not surprised. Why on earth would they decide to take a stranger in? Why couldn´t they be like her father? Why were they so nice and trusting towards her? They made it really hard on her "No attachment" rule. But what had she to lose? In a few month she was gone anyway.

" It doesn´t matter to us", Abidale laid her hand on Mariannas. The gesture touched something inside of her. Her mother had done that when she was sad. " You´re still young and you need guidance and protection. We can give you that".

" Besides Rath likes you and he doesn´t let people close", added Mael with a smile. He knew his son and nobody had managed to get under his skin so easily.

Marianna couldn´t struggle against the arguments and before she knew she agreed to it. Either it was the hopefully faces or the smell of the room, she didn´t know. But she would be living as a full member of the royal family now. What had she thought? Now she had to move her plan really fast before she began to love this people. Oh Boy what had she done!

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 The truth**

Vilandra and Ava were on their way to the beautiful garden outside the castle. They wanted to enjoy the good weather as long as it held on. Both sat on a little stone bench near the fountain, which was shaped like the crest of the kingdom. A dragon and a snake entangled. That was the place where they ususally were when they talked. It was far away from their parents and their betrothed. They wanted to take Marianna along, but she turned them down. Vilandra found that was really weird. Since their parents took her in, she backtracked more and more everyday from everyone. Every evening she hung out alone in her room and nobody saw her until the breakfast. Nobody understood what was up with her, but no one dared to adress the subject. Her parents thought that she had to settle in her new enviroments, before she would take part in any family business. They wanted to give her time. But Vilandra couldn´t do that. She wanted to help her or do something to make her remember. Vilandra liked her, enjoyed her company and it was never boring with her. Not that Ava was dull or something. But Ava was really quite and if she had anything to say it was most times about Zan and how sweet he was. Vilandra didn´t need to know that. There was things she didn´t want to know about her brother.

It was like she would tell her something disgusting about her brother. Speaking of Rath, he was pretty strange the last few days.

" Ava, did you notice something strange about your brother?" Vilandra had to know if she imaged everything. Maybe she was not the only one who observed the change.

" Vilandra, my brother is the strangest creature on this planet. If he would act like a normal person, he wouldn´t be Rath", replied Ava amused. Brothers were a species of its own and definitely extraordinary.

Vilandra had to laugh about that. Ava was right. But she knew that something had happened." No I didn´t mean that. Rath was alway a little bit different than us", she made a devaluing gesture with her right hand." Did you not notice that he has changed since the girl lives in our palace?".

Ava thought for a couple of minutes." Now that you remind me. Yes he is more open and he seems not so moody anymore".

" That´s what I noticed too", finally Vilandra could breath again. So it was not her imagination. Rath was really changed." I think he has a thing for our new arrival", she was not surprised and also not disappointed. Maybe her father would realise that she and Rath were not made for each other and would break off the engagement.

Ava was not so excited about this new developement. She wanted her brother married with Vilandra. Besides her father would never be ok with it." No. I don´t think so. I mean even if Rath would feel something for her, it could never work" No Rath wouldn´t be so stupid to start anything as long as he was engaged

" And why not", snapped Vilandra. She knew what Ava was thinking and she was wrong." Because he is supposed to marry me. I don´t want him and he doesn´t want me", Vilandra became really angry at this point. Why could nobody understand that she didn´t want to marry Rath. He was like a brother to her. Besides he was so not her type. She wanted to be romanced off of her feet. With someone who enjoyed every minute he was with her. Not somebody who thought romance was something for weaklings." I for one hope that Rath falls deeply in love with her!"

" How can you say that", now it was Avas turn to get angry. Why was it so difficult for Rath and Vilandra to accept their destiny. They would learn to love each other in time." We don´t even know who she is. She could be a spy from the enemy!".

" That´s ridiculous", Vilandra couldn´t believe that Ava thought that." Do you even hear how what you are saying".

" How do you know that", Ava was so angy that she couldn´t think straight. But she knew that something was wrong. " It could be all an act to gain our trust and then when we at least expect it she kills us".

Vilandra shook her head forcefully. She didn´t feel treathened by the girl. Not for one moment. She felt only sadness and some other things." That´s the stupist thing you ever said to me. She is a scared little girl and not some assassin".

" Fine", Ava heaved her hands in the air. If Vilandra didn´t want to listen, that was her problem. But nobody could say that she didn´t try." If you think so".

" I will prove it to you", Vilandra couldn´t let Ava think so bad from the girl, who must have gone through hell and back. Besides she wanted to have the last word in this fight.

" How?"

Vilandra would do something from which she knew that nobody was better than her." I will visit her in her dreams tonight. Maybe I can find something in her mind. Sometimes you have a memory, only she is deeply buried in your subconcious" Vilandra asked herself why she didn´t thought about that sooner." I will enter there, rummage around and maybe find something useful".

" Ok. But be careful", Ava didn´t want that Vilandra jeopardised her life for such a silly quest.

" You know me", Vilandra couldn´t wait until tonight. She was excited about the things she would find. Maybe she could help the girl to remember, not matter how bad it was. A little smile appeared on her beautiful face.

Ava didn´t share the same optimism like Vilandra. It was not like that she hated the girl. She was nice and sometimes really amusing, when she put Rath in his place. But Ava could feel that there was more to it than meets the eye. And her feelings never let her down so far. Maybe they would know more tomorrow and could put their fight aside.

**Later that evening just before midnight**

Mael and King Salem were in the conference room. In a couple of days, they had a meeting with the other planets. It would surely be a battle again. All those leaders who wanted to hold on their principles or their tradition. They couldn´t understand the other side and then everybody would scream around. In the end nobody would be satisfied and the meeting would be cancelled because of the fight. That was the same everytime. King Salem wondered why he still went to this meetings, he knew how it would go. Mael was excited about it. He always had so much fun on this things. To see how the old blockheads lost their cool was always fun. Just as he imagined the stupid faces, a knock was heard.

" Do you expect someone", King Salem gave strict order that nobody should disturb their conversation.

Mael shook his head no. His children knew that they weren´t allowed to bother him when he had something important to do.Besides it was really late" Maybe it´s one of your children".

King Salem saw on his timer on his right wrist" That can´t be. They sleep usually at this time". He thought that at least. He turned to his brother, who didn´t have a clue who would bother them at this time. Before he could make up his mind if he should let him or her in, Mael went to the door and opened it. He was suprised to see the royal messenger standing in the treshold.

" Excuse me Duke Mael, I didn´t want to disturb, but I have important news", the messenger was slightly out of breath. He must have run the whole way. The first sign, that it would be bad news.

" What is it?", now King Salem strode to his brothers side. A bad feeling spread through his body.

" We know who the girl is", the messenger couldn´t say the name. It was bad, really bad.

Mael who didn´t have the patient like his brother, lost his nerves" Don´t keep us in the suspense here".

" Her name is Marianna and she is Khivars daughter".

King Salem lost his colour for a moment. He turned to Mael, who didn´t look better.Then he turned back to the messenger" Are you sure? I mean do you have prove?".

" Yes your highness", the messenger pulled a piece of paper from his cape and gave it to his shocked king. He couldn´t believe it either that this little girl was supposed to be the daughter of this gruel monster.

King Salem took the paper and read it. Mael moved closer to his brother and tried to read over his shoulder. After they had everything they both faced it other and said only one word at once" Oh Damn"

**Meanwhile in Vilandras Bedroom**

Vilandra was in bed for two hours now and tried to fall asleep. But the thought what she could find in the mind of the girl didn´t let her find rest. Or maybe it was the little fight with Ava earlier this day. But whatever it was she had to shake it off. She made herself comfortable and cleared her mind. Five minutes later Vilandra feel in a deep sleep.

Dreamplane

Vilandra was in a empty corridor, which was illuminated with a faint light. On each side of this hall there were doors, which lead to the dreams of the people. It was really freezing in there and Vilandra was cold. She crossed her arms infront of her breast and hoped that hear hands would be warm. Then she was on her search of the doors which would lead to the girls dream. After she searched for almost an eternity she found what she was looking for. Slowly she took the doorknob and tried to turn it. But the door didn´t budge.

" What the hell", That never happened before to Vilandra, the access was never denied to her. What did the girl try to protect behind this door.

But Vilandra would not give up, not after her interest was awakened. She concentrated on the doorknob and within a few seconds her hand glowed green. Afterwards the door opened easily and she stepped in the dream. Slowly she glanced around and realized that she was in another corridor, which was really scary. The walls were bare except for a few candlesticks here and there. It was the last place she wanted to be. Suddenly she heard footsteps, which moved in her direction.

Luckily she was invisible and she didn´t had to worry about to be discovered. From a distance she saw a small figure with a grimm face. Shocked she regnorized that it was the girl. She wore the clothes of a soldier and by the look of it she was a member of them. A sudden dull noise to her right startled her. The girl made a face and stopped her walk to listen at the door. After a couple of seconds the sound came again. The girl didn´t hesitate and opened the door. Vilandra followed her quickly. But what she saw was too bad to put into words. A woman lay on the ground and a man was bent over her with the weapon, a bronze statue, still in his hand.

" How could you that?", whispered Mariana sad." Why did you kill my mother?"

" She was nothing, she had to die", retorted Khivar cold.

" You egoistic bastard!", screamed Marianna outraged towards her father. She couldn´t believe that he would be so cool after he killed his wife." How can you be so cold about that!".

" Don´t speak to me that way, young lady!", Khivar arose from his grouched position and went to his daughter.

" And if I do it after all?What do you want to do? Kill me like Mother?" spat Marianna and glared with so much hate in her eyes at her father.

Khivar shrugged" If I have to".

" You will atone for this!", threatened Marianna before she turned to the door." I swear by my life, you will punished for murder!". She would give everything to see her father hung for his crime and if it was the last she would do.

" What are you doing?", asked Khivar angry.

Marianna swirled around, threw a nasty look at her father and opened the door. " Guards, Guards!", she cried really loud." I need help immediately!"

Vilandra couldn´t believe what she saw. A man killed her mother and she witnessed it. No wonder her mind shut down. But before she could think about the situation any longer, two guards appeared. The girl explained what happened.

" Don´t believe her!", interfered Khivar." She was the killer of my wife! I only wanted to prevent her from doing it".

Vilandra turned to the guards and like expected they didn´t believe the story.

" Don´ t let her fool you with her pretty face", said Khivar as he saw the unbelieving faces of his guards. He knew what they thought." She is more dangerous than she looks".

" Father. How can you say something like that?", tears gathered in Mariannas eyes. " I´m your daughter".

Vilandra forgot for one moment to breath. Her own father killed her mother. That was aweful.

" Your a murderer", retorted Khivar without remorse. " And so will you be treated".

" Father!", uttered Marianna shocked.

Khivar adressed his guards. " Throw her in the dungeon". He made a little break, because another thought occured him. " Or kill her, I don´t care".

Vilandra wanted to blast the gruel bastard to hell and back. She was his daughter and he treated her like a criminell. How could he do that to his own flesh and blood. Disgusted she tried to send him a death glare. But she knew that didn´t help very much at this moment. She decided that she saw enough, she could imagine the rest after all the girl was in a room in the castle of her father and left the dreamplane.

End Dreamplane

Vilandra shot panic stricken out of her bed. She had to lay her hand on her fast beating heart out of fear it would be jumping out of her body. That was the most aweful dream she had to see. No wonder the girl was so weird. After this trauma everybody would react that way. She could still feel the fear and the panic and she was only a observer. She couldn´t imagine how it would be for the girl.

She had lost her whole family at once and that only to survive. Vilandra had no clue how that must feel. She grew up in a lovingly family, which dictated what she did and who she had to love, but loved her nontheless. It could have been worse than marrying a man she didn´t love . Maybe she should be nicer to her parents and her brother from now on. Suddenly the picture of the girls father popped in her head. She had seen this face anywhere. And then came the realization.

OH MY GOD SHE WAS THE DAUGHTER OF KHIVAR, HER FATHERS BIGGEST ENEMY


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 Consequences**

Mael and King Salem were on their way to the room of Marianna. They wanted to confront her with the information they received. They still couldn´t get their heads around it that she was the daughter of their only true enemy. She was so nice, a little quiet and reserved, but nice nontheless. The paper showed however a different person. She seemed to have murdered her own mother and then escaped the palace. Supposedly one of the soldiers, Mariannas brother, had shot her and she was supposed to be dead right now. But the picture showed the same girl, they took in their family a few days ago. Now they knew why Marianna was so badly hurt when Rath found her. She was on the run from the soldier, which wanted to arrest her for murder. Mael couldn´t believe that he wasn´t more attentive to everything. He was the commander, he had to protect his king and he let a criminell in their home and their heart. He began to love this girl like a daughter.

" Do you believe she did it", King Salem broke the silence between them. He was not sure if he should believe everything he read. The girl seemed not to be the dangerous type.

Mael shrugged his shoulders. He know nothing at the moment. He hoped everything would clear up as soon as they spoke with Marianna. " I don´t know. But I know that she has been lying to us for awhile now".

" You noticed it, too", King Salem shook his head. It didn´t look good for the girl.

" Yeah.I said nothing, because I didn´t want to upset anyone. I thought she would tell us everything when she was ready" Mael wanted to smack himself. He should have pushed. What if they hadn´t found out about Marianna, what would have happened?

King Salem had to laugh despite the serious situation. They were more similar as they thought." Same here. But I don´t think she killed her mother".

" How do you know that?", Mael wanted to believe that, too. But he couldn´t.

" My heart tells me that." King Salem didn´t know why he tried to protect the girl. It was a feeling." And I listen to my heart".

Mael wanted to reply that he couldn´t do this when they arrived at the door to Mariannas room.

Both men were really nervous and scared. They didn´t know what to expect and what they would learn.

King Salem thought it was best to knock before entering, but Mael had other ideas. He opened the door forcefully. Marianna, who slept really deeply in her bed, woke up from the noise in her room. She jumped fast on her feet and was prepaired to kill anybody who dared to attack her. But after she realized who stood before her, she dropped her fighting stance.

" What is going on here", Marianna tried to wipe the sleep out of her eyes. She was still slightly sleepy. She took a look out of the window. Like she imagined it was still dark outside. What happened that the King and his second in command had to disturb her sleep.

King Salem took a step forward and lifted a piece of paper infront of her face" What can you say to us about that"

Marianna observed the paper. There was a big picture of her mother with a big headline above which read " Queen Leiana murdered from her own daughter" and to the right of the little article was a picture of Marianna. Tears gathered in her eyes as she thought about the worst hours of her life and everyone believed that she was a murderer. She knew that her cover was blown and by the look of it she was in so much trouble at the moment.

Mael, who was quiet the whole time, saw the tears and the sorrow behind those eyes. That were not tears of a girl who killed her mother, that were tears of a girl who lost her mother." We know that you didn´t lose your memories. Why don´t you tell us your side of the story?".

" Why. You wouldn´t believe my anyhow. Nobody would believe me", Marianna didn´t have the strength to fight anymore. No one on this whole planet was on her side. She was all alone and she would die that way." You formed your opinion right before you went rushing in this room".

King Salem let the paper fall onto the floor" Then try to convience us of the contrary. What have you got to lose?".

" What do you want to hear from me", Marianna was close to losing her cool. She didn´t notice that she was crying and screaming." That I killed my mother. That I´m a coldblood murderer. Or that I would kill again if I had the chance". At the last part the ground beneath their feet began to shake violently. Paintings fell from the walls and the lusters crashed on the floor.

King Salem and Mael had to hold onto the wall the keep standing. They didn´t know what triggered the quake. They looked at Marianna and noticed that her whole body shuddered, her eyes turned to a deep black and her hair flew like crazy around her head. Both faced each other in shock. They didn´t know that Marianna possesed such ability. She was much more powerful than everybody on this planet. Mael tried to take a step forward and calm the girl down. But at that moment everything stopped and Marianna dropped on her knees. She hid her face in her hands and cried. King Salem and Mael didn´t know what to do with that. Suddenly the door flew open and Rath entered the room.

" What happened?"

" Nothing. Go back to your bed. We have everything in control" Mael didn´t think Marianna would want any more people around her.

Rath lifted his right eyebrow. Yeah that was convincing." Really? Because I gotta say that I particular prefer to be awakend by my alarmclock and not from falling paintings".

" We talk tomorrow morning about everything", Mael wanted his son gone and that really fast. It was hard enough right now and Rath wouldn´t be a big help." I promise. But do as I say and go".

Rath was a little bit irritated. What was his fathers problem? Why did he want him to dissapear? Then he heard it. It was a noice that sounded like a sob. Immediately Rath pushed his father aside to see what the noise was about. Shocked he noticed the girl. She sat on her knees and cried violently in her hands.

" What have you done to her", Rath wasn´t sure why he was so angry. But nobody was allowed to hurt her. Not as long as she was under his protection.

" Nothing", Mael received a unbelievable look from his son." Trust me. We haven´t touched her in any way".

" Why is she crying then?", Rath was beyond mad now.He knelt infront of the crying girl. Then he saw a piece of paper lying beside him on the ground. He took it in his with rage shaking hands. A few seconds later he faced Marianna. He couldn´t believe what he read. She was the enemies daughter. She had killed her own mother.Why didn´t he notice something. He was usually more attentive to everything. That was propably his punishment for thinking with his heart and not his head. He was in love with the only girl he couldn´t have. He felt cheated and betrayed. " Did you know about that?".

King Salem understood the feelings of his nephew." We learned about it only a hour ago ourselves".

" That´s great. And when did you planning of telling us about it?. When she killed someone else?", Rath rose from his crouched position and faced his father and his uncle.

" We don´t know if she did that", Mael laid a hand on his sons shoulder and tried to calm him down a bit.

" I can believe you. You of all people try to protect a murderer. The man who said blast first, ask question later?", Rath was on the brink of doing something stupid. She was the enemy, end of story. What more did they want? Prove?

King Salem couldn´t listen to the fight any longer. Besides they had to deal with Marianna. She had stopped crying and now observed quietly the little display." We have a different situation here. We don´t want to protect a murderer as much as you do. But we need prove about that"

Rath lifted the paper and pushed it in King Salems face" What more do you need", he showed a line with his finger." Here it is", he pointed at Marianna." She killed her mother".

Marianna had enough of the false accusation. As fast as possible she jumped to her feet and stomped angrily to Rath." I did not kill my mother. I loved her and I would never hurt her. Do you understand me". She poked Rath´s chest with her finger.

" And how will you prove that", Rath took her finger of him. Then he crossed his arms infront of his chest.

Just as Marianna wanted to say that she couldn´t prove her innocence, a out of breath running Vilandra stepped in the room.

" I know who she is"

" Congratulation Vilandra", Rath clapped sarcastic." We know that, too".

" You know. Thank god", now Vilandra could finally rest for a few minutes. She wasn´t used to so much exercise. She wanted to announce the good news as soon as possible. It would all be better from now on.

" Yeah we know that she killed her mother", Rath couldn´t let it go.

Vilandra faced Rath and saw in his angry face." No. That´s not true".

" And how do you know that?", great, another supporter of Marianna. Why couldn´t they saw the truth. They had taken in a murderer and a traitor to her people.

" I had a fight with Ava this afternoon. She didn´t trust the girl", Vilandra made a little break, because Rath had to congratulate his obviously smart sister." I wanted to prove her wrong. Tonight I went in her dream and I saw what really happened".

King Salem embraced his daughter. She was like him." What have you seen?".

" Her father killed her mother. She saw it by accident. When she told the guards what happened her father accused her. Then she had to escape because her father gave order to kill her", Vilandra saw still the picture in her mind. The feeling of sadness and fury were still fresh.

" Is it true?", Mael glanced at Marianna. She nodded sadly. If Vilandra didn´t have saved her life, she would be very angry with her for invading her privacy.

" Then we talk about everything tomorrow. Now try to get some more sleep tonight", King Salem was tired. Now that their weren´t in immdiate danger they could rest.

Rath glared on last time at Marianna and left the room with pounding steps. Vilandra squeezed her arm and smiled encouragly before she left, too. Mael embraced her for a moment and then he followed the kids outside. Only King Salem remained.

" Try to sleep. You have a hard day tomorrow" he stroked softly her left cheek." Don´t worry. Everything will be better from now on. You are save here".

With that the King made his way to his bedroom. Marianna stood still on the same spot she was early. After the door closed behind King Salem she crawled back in her bed and pulled her blanket over her face. She didn´t want to face everyone tomorrow. It would be the same like the scene earlier.But why now. She was almost ready with her plan against her father. Couldn´t they have waited a couple of days longer. Maybe she should take off. There was nothing holding her back anyhow. But then she thought about the friendly faces of Mael, Vilandra and King Salem. She had to face her problems head on. Besides if she tried to escape she had to be on the run for the rest of her life and everybody would think she was guilty. No she would listen and then she could still decide what to do. With that thought she closed her eyes.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 Battle of wills**

Marianna tried to sleep but she couldn´t the rest of the night. She was wide awake and thought about the upcoming conversation. That would be breakfast from hell. Everybody asking her stupid questions which she would rather not answer. But what could she do? Just before sunrise she wanted to climb out of her window. However there were two problems. 1. She was scared of heights and 2. guards who patroled the garden around the palace. After her failed attempt to sneak out the door, because there were more guards, she gave up and waited till it was time for breakfast. And that was what she was doing right now. She was on her way to the dining room. She was really nervous and scared, althrough the King had ressured her that everything would be good. But Rath could be a huge obstacle. She didn´t know why he reacted so angry the night before. It wasn´t like she had threatened his family or something. He made everything worst than it was. Men, they were so sensetive sometimes! Marianna was so deep in thoughts that she almost crashed in the door to the dining room. She shook her head to get rid of her notion. She had still time to think about Rath after her questioning. With shaky hands she took the handle and opened the door. And what she saw was so not what she expected. The whole family was present. They sat around the large table and looked her way. She felt like she would be standing infront of them in the nude. That would at least explain why they stared so intensely. But Marianna wouldn´t let them intimidate her.

" Good morning", she said friendly and looked at everyone.

" Good morning dear", replied Abidale in her motherly tone. Her husband had told her everything last night. At first she was angry then after Mael described the situation she felt pity for the girl. No one should witness the death of the own mother. And her father was the murderer, too. No wonder Marianna was so sad." Why don´t you take a seat?"

Marianna did as told and sat slightly apart from the others." Why don´t we get it over with quickly", she had no real desire to be here and the waiting would propably kill her, literally.

" Allright. We only thougth that it was best to wait after breakfast. But if you´re up to it, we can do it now", King Salem rose from his chair. He and his family had discussed it really long and although Rath had his objections everybody came to the same conclusion. " You know what you did was wrong, right?"

Marianna nodded. Logical it was wrong but practical it was right." I know and I´m sorry. But I thought I did what was best for me".

" And nobody will pass sentence on you. But still it was wrong and you have to bear the consequences" King Salem put on his father face, which looked like a mix of concern and anger

" We only want that you are honest with us from now on. It was horrible what you had to experience. But we want you to trust us and in contrast we want to trust you, understood", Queen Lutecia interfered. Vilandra showed her the whole incident and it was disgusting. How a father could do something to his own daughter, she didn´t know.

" Wait. Let me get this straigth. You don´t hate me and I don´t have to go?", Marianna believed she didn´t listen right. It couldn´t be. She had lied to them over weeks and they didn´t punish her? That was really a strange family.

Now Abidale had something to say." Of course not. You thought you did the right thing", she laid a hand on Mariannas." We all make mistakes, but that doesn´t mean we hate each other".

" Besides, you are a part of our family now", Mael repressed a smile." That means we can give you house arrest or you have to do the chores for a few weeks".

Mariannas eyes widened out of fear." Chores? In the whole palace? You´re not serious, are you?". No No. They wouldn´t do that to her. Allright, she was lying, but she didn´t destroy the planet.

" Welcome in our family", Vilandra couldn´t hide her smile any longer. She knew her uncle. He was dead serious about that. He let her trim the huge garden, only because she was a little late. So, she had help from Ava and her brother, but it was still horrible. She had to scrub her nails for hours and her hair was dirty.

" Now that we have the important stuff out of the way, we can finally eat", King Salem knew that it would be a while before everybody would trust Marianna again, but it was a start for now.

" Yeah. I´m starving", Zan rubbed his belly. He didn´t say much, but he trusted his father. If he said Marianna was not a threat then he believed him. Maybe he could try to make friends with her. Except for the lying she was a funny person, especially when she spoke back to Rath.

" Tell us something new", replied Vilandra sarcastic. Her brother was always hungy. If he wasn´t careful he would put on weight.

Zan glared at his sister." Hey, I´m a growing boy. I need all the food I can get so that I will be tall and strong", he tensed his non existing muscles.

The whole table broke out in laughter. That was what Marianna missed at home. No matter how cold her father was, her mother was always so tender to her. She stopped sometimes by her room and they gossiped about people or they teased Nikolai. Too bad she didn´t have the strong connection to her own brother like Zan and Vilandra did. But she couldn´t dwell to much on the past. She couldn´t change anything, although she would do it gladly. Maybe she could let go of her anger towards her father and move on. He would get what he deserved, no matter what. Until then she had to go a long way before she would feel completely at ease with these people. Marianna took a look at Rath. He was still angry, which revealed his scrowling face, which stared at her. She didn´t know what his problem was with her. At first he treated her like she would break any minute and now he did so like she would attack his family any moment. He was so hard to read. But Marianna was never a girl to back down from a challenge. Therefore she glared back at Rath. If she was really good in something than "who can hold the gaze longer". A couple of minutes later the meal arrived and Rath was the first to drop his gaze. Marianna was pleased with herself and she clapped on her back mentally. She dropped her head, because she tried to hide her smile. She would show him who was the better soldier.

**Later that afternoon**

Rath was in the fighting room. In this room was the whole equipment to boost the strength. Only the soldier had access to it. Every day they met here and finished their training after they trained with the weapons. Rath was usually more often in this room, because he had the most pressure. As future Commander he had to be the best of all. Today he was there because he had to work out his anger. With all his might he beat at the punching bag over and over again. He didn´t know why he behaved like a jerk or why he treated Marianna like a plaque. She had lost her family and he should be more sympathetic towards her. But he couldn´t forgive that she was lying to him for a long time and that she thought she couldn´t trust him. If he was true to himself he was more mad at him, because he didn´t realize sooner that something was wrong. And a little part was furious that somebody could do such a thing to a innocent girl, which was not older than his own sister. If he imaged something like that would happen to Ava, he would propably tear the whole kingdom apart until he found the culprit and then he would torture him as long as his powers would work. Rath shook his head. He had to stop thinking about that. He would do everything in his part that his family would never be harmed. Everybody who wanted to hurt them had to go through him first.

" You´re doing it wrong", a voice startled Rath out of his thoughts.

He turned around and saw Marianna standing at the entrance of the room. She was leaning against the wall and had her arms crossed infront of her chest. " What?"

" You are fighting to uncontrolled. Every opponent would predict yout next move and dodge it" She seemed to be amused over his baffled expression.

Rath was not excited about the suggestion of Marianna. What could she possibly know about fighting and battles." Yeah. And you know that because?"

" Well first of all I was the second highest officer in my fathers army", Marianna pushed away from the wall and walked in his direction."Secondly every blind man can see that the anger leads you and not the other way around". She placed herself infront Rath." Rule number one : Don´t let anger cloud your senses".

" You were a soldier?", Rath had problems to stifle his laughter. No woman had the physical shape to survive one week at the exercise. Only the strongest and fastes men made it to the troops.

Marianna didn´t like the way Rath was so amused about the fact that she was member of the royal army. She pressed her right hand at her hips and glared dangerously." Why should I lie about that?".

" I don´t know", Rath pretended to think about it." Maybe it´s because you were lying to me before".

" Could you drop it. I said I was sorry", Marianna´s patience snapped. Why couldn´t he stop the harassment. His family was in the process to forgive her. Why couldn´t he do the same?

" But that could be a lie also!", Rath raised his voice. If he would be any louder the whole palace could hear him.

" I´m so sick of your attitude towards me", Marianna took her shirt and pulled it off. Then she threw it forcefully down on the floor. Thank god that she wore a tank top underneath otherwise she would have given Rath a glimpse of her almost nude body." Let´s deal with the situation like men".

Rath was slightly distracted through the little top that did nothing to hide her breast. But he heared the last part." But you´re a woman".

" That´s beside the point", Marianna was so furious that she couldn´t think clearly at the moment." Let´s do it right here and now and I´ll show if I´m lying or not".

" I don´t fight with girls", Rath had never raised a hand against a woman. His father taught him that much. Althrough he was quite angry at her, he wouldn´t touch her in any way.

" Too chicken? Afraid you could lose against me?", If Marianna knew something it was that men had one weakness. Their ego. Tell them they were to afraid and they would do everything. Men were so easy sometimes.

Rath was really mad now. Nobody questioned his manhood and would get away with it." Alright, fine. Let´s do it".

" Wait a minute. I just have to adjust my bra", Marianna pushed her breast upwards with both hands.

Rath stared fascinated at the white flesh which peaked out of her tank top and the next thing he knew he landed with his back on the floor and Marianna sat on his belly. She pinned down his arms to the ground beneath his head.

" Rule Number two : Don´t get distracted. Be on guard all the time", Marianna smirked happy about her successful attack. She used the oldest trick in the book. Men think always with their dicks.

Rath felt really embarassed. He was usually not so easily fooled. Hopefully his father would never know about this. It would be too humiliated for him. " That was not fair. You tricked me".

" Fighting is never fair", Marianna bent forward until her mouth was at his ear." But if you want I can play nice". Her breath tickled his throat and let every hair stand at his neck. Something in his pants began to stir.

" Don´t do me any favours", Rath rolled really fast to the right side. And now he was on top. Yeah he liked this position much better. Now he had the control again.

" You´re really good", Marianna had to give him credit for that. But they were only at the beginning. Now it would be really serious. No cuddling, no holding back. With that thought Marianna used her powers to throw Rath off of her body. He landed with a thud a couple of feet away from her on the floor. " But I´m better". Marianna rose from the ground

Rath jumped immediately back on his feet." Alright. You want it rough. I give you rough", he pulled his tank top off of his sweating body.

Marianna had to swallow for a moment. He was built really nice and very tasty. His belly muscles were well trained and the light hair at his belly button which seemed to reach inside his pants were a total turn on. Just as she thougth about that a blast hit her square in the chest and tossed her at the nearest wall. If she would be a normal girl that would have had hurt. But her body was used to bruises and she didn´t hurt that easily anymore.

" Did you forget Rule Number two", Rath imitated Marianna and tried to sound like a woman." Don´t get distracted. Be on guard all the time".

Marianna knew he would throw her words back in her face. Why couldn´t he be ugly or have a big belly. No he had to have a body like an Antarian god. But she couldn´t let him think he will win this figh. Immediately she stood up and gathered her strength. She stretched her right arm out and Rath hung a few feets above the floor on the wall.

" Now that is a sight you don´t see everyday", Marianna droped her arm. She didn´t need it anymore. She pinned him down with her mind.

" Let me down, right now", Rath tried to fight against the spell with his powers. But they were not strong enough. Irritated he scrowled at her. She seemed to enjoy it to much.

" No. I let you hang there for a while", Marianna thought about something funny." Maybe I can torture you while you´re at my mercy. You know for the way you treated me", the evil twinkle in her eyes made Rath a bit afraid.

" What will you do to me? Talk me to death?", no matter in which situation Rath was, his sarcastic comments never ceased. Besides what could she do really to him? She wouldn´t hurt him. At least not badly.

" No. Althrough that´s a great idea", Marianna stepped closer to Rath. Maybe she should let him hang until he begged to release him. Or she could have her way with him. Oh my. Where did that thougth come from? Marianna shook her head. No sexual fantasies about Rath. She noticed how her cheeks got warm and a blush covered her face. Immediately she tried to hide it with her hands.

" Marianna", Rath cried. She seemed to think really hard about his punishment. Hopefully it would be not to bloody and hurtful. Suddenly her face changed her colour. Was she blushing? " Hello. I´m still there".

Just as Rath wanted to call again he crashed with full force on the floor. She must have lost her holding on him. Quickly he attacked again. He knew that his powers couldn´t compare with Mariannas. She was stronger, but hand to hand fight he was the best. Therefore he tried it with a frontal attack. But Marianna expected it, althrough she seemed to be still in her thoughts. She sidestepped him. Rath lost his balance and fell to the floor. However Rath was no newbie in fighting. He kicked his leg out and brought Marianna down, too. Rath reacted immediately and rolled on top of her. With his hands he nailed her on the floor.

" You seem to like it on top", Marianna laughed. Not that she minded. No stop it. Why couldn´t she have other thoughts about him. He was a jerk.

Rath smirked down at her." Of course", he dropped his head until his mouth reached her ear. " I like to have control", he waited a second and then he added." In everything".

Marianna had to fight against her lust. If she wasn´t careful she would beg him to take her. Here and now. Her heart threatend to jump out of her chest, her breathing was heavy and her eyes changed to a dark green. Rath noticed the change in her. He saw in her lustful eyes. Before he knew what he did, he pressed his lips against hers. Her mouth was soft and tasted wonderful. Carefully he pushed his tongue against her lips. Seconds later she opend her mouth. Immediately both tongues were fighting for dominance. Marianna moaned quietly. Rath knew what he was doing. His right hand traveled from her wrist to her cheek. He was so sensitiv and rough at the same time. Her whole body shuddered for longing. Her nails bore in his flesh. Suddenly Marianna realized what she did and with who. With all her strength she pushed Rath off of her and jumped to her feet.

" We can´t do that", she stuttered embarressed. She avoided eye contact with Rath. " It´s wrong. Your engaged and so I am, at least in theory". She felt her cheeks blushing again.

Rath had to laugh about that. She was really cute if she was nervous." Relax. It was only a kiss". His smile grew wider.

" That was not only a kiss!", Marianna threw her hands in the air." I know what a kiss is, that was definitively more than a kiss", she pointed a finger at him. " you forced yourself on me!".

" I didn´t notice that you were against it", Rath retorted back. He felt no pain. It was worth everything. Now he could sleep really good tonight.

" You surprised me. That´s all". Marianna knew that was a lie. But she wouldn´t admit it to him. Ever.

" Tell yourself that, but I know that you loved it", Rath winked at her seductively." Admit it, you want me".

" I admit nothing!", Marianna stomped forcefully her right leg against the floor. She cursed her body, who yearned for his touches and tingled for longing." I go now and try to forget that this", she pointed at them both." ever happened", she glared at him." I would do the same if I were you". With that she turned around and made her way out of the room.

Rath could hear her babble that she would get to hell for this. He couldn´t restrain his laughter. This girl would definitely make his life more interesting, that was for sure. He noticed Mariannas shirt, which lay on the floor. He took it in his hand and smelled. Yeah he would keep it as a trophy. If she wanted to forget about the kiss, he would do everything to prevent it. No matter what she said, she wanted him like he wanted her. With that thought he went to his room. He needed a cold shower, badly.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 Chores and other problems**

Marianna was dead tired. Since the early morning she had cleaned almost every room in the castle. And that was really hard work considering that the palace had about 42 of them and they were not small. Every muscle in Mariannas body arched from the slave labor. She had made 41 beds, cleaned 54 windows and dusted 125 furniture. Ok that was exaggerated, but for Marianna it seemed so much. Her arms felt like they weighted a ton, her legs were wobbly like jello and it seemed as a herd of really big animals stomped on her back all day. Never in her whole life she felt so bad like today. And the worst was, that it was only the beginning. After the cleaning she had to report to the laundry room to wash all the dirty clothes. That meant the rest of the day in a room full of steam and stuffy air. No that was not her idea of fun. Thank god she only had to do the chores for today and not the whole week. That would have been cruel. With that thought she went to the last room of the castle. A room she had tried to ignore. Rath own little empire. Carefully she opened the door to his room. She was pretty surprised about the appearance. The room was spare furnished. In the middle was a kingsized bed. The covers were dark blue. Next to it was a little nightstand. There lay a book about fight tactics and something that looked like a stunted plant. Marianna stepped closer in the room. At the end of the room there was a bureau with a lamp. And then there was a large bookcase with many books in it. Marianna took one of the books and eyed it interested. It seemed as Rath was a little bookworm. She didn´t know that he could read at all. She had to remember this, so that she could tease him about it sometimes. Carefully she put the book back in the rack. She was not here to snoop around but to clean. Therefore she made her way to the bed. The blanket felt really nice and after she shook it she realised it smelled like him. Just as she bent her whole body over the bed to straighten the corners she heard the familiar voice behind her.

" Now that´s a sight I could get used to", Rath stood at the doorframe in all his manhood. His arms were crossed infront of his chest and he wore is trademark smirk.

Marianna was so startled that she lost her balance and dropped with her face down in the fresh made bed. And because she tried to get rid of the disobendiently bedspread so fast she got tangled up in it. After a few minutes of fighting with the stubborn thing Marianna made it out alive from it. Now her hair stood in every direction, her clothes were lightly wrinkled and she noticed that she was blushing, again. Why did she have to blush everytime Rath was near. As if it was not bad enough without the embarrassed situations.

" If you wanted so badly in my bed why didn´t you say so?", Rath was completly turned on by the picture. Marianna in his bed. But in his fantasy she was always naked and not dressed. Maybe he could change that?

" Dream on, pally", Marianna could not believe him. Who did he think he was. He wasn´t that attractive. Ok, that was a lie. But he didn´t need to know that. " I´m only here to clean your room".

" Then don´t let me keep you", Rath loved it when he could Marianna all flustered. She was even more cuter when she was mad.

Marianna jumped to her feet and got back to work. She had to be fast now or she couldn´t keep her timeplan. She wanted to eat before she had to be in the laundry room. But there was only a slight problem. She felt watched. A look at the window and the reflection there confirmed her suspicion. Rath hadn´t left his place by the door.

" Do you have nothing better to do, besides bugging me?", Marianna was at the end of her patience. She didn´t understand why she was so a bitch every time Rath was in close proximity. Usually she was a nice person to be around, but not with him. He managed to bring out her bitchy side each time. She was like two persons in one.

Rath moved from his postion and went in her direction. " Nope. I don´t have something to do. Besides you´re so easy to tick off".

" Only if you´re near me", Marianna turned around and glared at Rath. He was so annoying sometimes, no, actually all the time. " That should tell you something".

" Yeah", Rath came closer and closer. He was like a predator who stalked his prey." It means you want me and you dream about me at night".

Marianna was not impressed with the direction the conversation took. And she didn´t like the look in Rath´s eyes. It made her inside quiver slightly. She tried to take a step backward, but she was stopped from the bed there. One step closer and she would fall on the bed again. That would not be a good idea. " In your dreams maybe".

" Well actually my dreams are pretty naughty, if you know what I mean", Rath raised his left eyebrow. He was so close to Marianna now, that he could smell her lust. She obviously wanted it too. But why did she struggle against it.

Marianna was slowly starting to get nervous. Rath was too close. His eyes were not amber anymore, but almost black. If she didn´t do something in the next few seconds, she knew that she wouldn´t get out for the next hours or so. No, she couldn´t let that happen, althrough it was really tempting. She knew it would be wrong to act on these feelings they had now. She pushed Rath out of her way and went to the door" Great. Now I have nightmares for the rest of the week".

" Where do think you´re going?", Rath couldn´t let her get away so easily. He hoped for a little something and she couldn´t let him stand there like an idiot.

" I have done my work here. Now I have to go to the laundry room, if you don´t mind", Marianna didn´t know how long she could resist him. He was so damn frustating and confusing.

" I do mind. My bed is a complete mess", Rath pointed to his covers which were all over the bed. Besides he didn´t mind seeing her bent over his bed again.

" That´s not my problem anymore. I have done my work", with that Marianna stepped out of the room and made her way to the laundry room.

Rath rubbed his face with his right hand. That girl would be his death sometime. She was so damn sexy and annoying at once. Now he had to take a cold shower, AGAIN. Damn her.

Meanwhile Marianna tried everything to cover her flushed face. She couldn´t let on that something might have happened.With lightning speed she walked down to the basement of the castle, where the laundry room was. She was so deep in thoughts that she even forgot to eat. Earlier than expected she started her duty. The old lady showed her what she had to do the rest of the day. It was not so difficult and she would certainly get along. Besides if something should go wrong she had help.

The only negative side effect was the steam and the stuffy air. She could imagine how her hair would look after her work. It would stick to her face and look like she hadn´t washed it for a long time. Thank god she didn´t get the job of trimming the garden. The mud would have been in her nails for days. Not that she was afraid of dirty work, but there were things she didn´t need to experience. But the work was actually not that bad. After a few tries she got the hang of it. It was really easy and funny. She heard the most hilarious tales from the employees. They had something to say about every member of the royal family. The funniest were the stories of Zan and Rath. They were pretty wild when they were kids. They played tricks on their parents and messed up the whole castle. Poor Ava and Vilandra weren´t allowed to join them. In revenge to that the girls told their parent who done the pranks. Which led to two angry boys, because they were punished for their pranks. Marianna had to laugh about most of the stories. It was nice to hear something funny for a change. Her childhood was not so good. Sure she had friends and a family. But her father ignored her, her brother did everything to impress their father and her mother tried to avoid every contact with her husband. A really wonderful family. Her only true friend was Marius. He was always there for her and tried to make her laugh or dried her tears when she cried. He was the only bright spot in her life. And she didn´t have had the time to tell him that.

Suddenly a small hand waved in front of her face.

" Is everything alright with you?", Corly, a young attendant of the palace, tried to snap her out of her thoughts.

" Yeah, sorry", Marianna shook her head. She must have zoned out for a moment. " I was only thinking".

" Seems like it was not so happy", Corly was really nice. Her smile was contagiuous.

" It´s alright. It was a long time ago", Marianna didn´t want to think about it to much. It was in the past and it should stay there. Besides she couldn´t change anything anyhow.

" If you want to talk about it I´m a great listener", althrough Corly didn´t know Marianna that long she felt a connection with her. It was like they know each other for a long time. It didn´t matter that Marianna was a rich princess and she only a poor attendant.

" Thank you", Marianna was grateful. Corly seemed like a nice girl." So what should I do next?".

" The pile next to you", Corly pointed to the mountain of black shirts and black pants. " That are the clothes of Rath".

Marianna eyed the clothes really intensly. " Aha, Rath´s clothes. Very interesting", a plan formed in her little mind. She could pay him back for the incident earlier. He would think twice before he did something again after that.

Corly didn´t like the twinkle in Mariannas eyes. It looked really scary. But she had her own pile to do, therefore she couldn´t keep an eye on her all the time.

Marianna didn´t care that everybody could see what she wanted to do. They had their own work and wouldn´t bother her. Just as anyone was distracted she let all of Rath shirts shrunk two size smaller. Now the only person who could wear that was Ava or her. Rath wouldn´t fit in it anymore. After she was done with that she washed the shirts and the pants.

**Later in the evening**

Marianna and the royal family sat around the table. Everybody talked about the day and what happened. Ava and Isabel told their parents about their new dresses, Zan tried not to roll his eyes at that, Mael and King Salem talked about politics and Queen Lutecia and Abidale gossiped. From time to time somebody would look on his timer. They were all waiting for Rath. The dinner would get cold if he didn´t came soon. Suddenly they heard angry steps coming their way. It was really loud and really fast. Then the door flew forcefully open. Rath glared angry at his family. Until his eyes found the culprit.

" Marianna, what have you done to my shirts", he was pretty furious and he didn´t trie do hide it. He didn´t have prove, but he knew that she was guilty.

At the last part the whole family noticed the shirt Rath was wearing. It was to small for his size and covered only the upper half of his torso. You could see his belly button and a little bit more of that.

Ava and Vilandra burst out laughing at that picture. Zan hid his smile behind his hands. Mael and his wife tried to hide her laughter decently. Queen Lutecia couldn´t hold her laughter in and King Salem only grinned.

" I did nothing to your shirt´s", ok, that sounded not so innocent like she thought. But the picture was just too funny. " I only washed them, like I was told to".

" You let them shrink", Rath was on the brink to strangle Marianna. What should he wear now? He couldn´t go around shirtless.

" I did not. I´m sorry if the shirts shrunk. But that is not my fault", and he couldn´t prove it. Besides it was fixable. Althrough she didn´t mind seeing Rath topless.

For the first time Rath couldn´t find a remark. Filled with rage he stormed out of the dining room and made his way to his bedroom. Maybe he had to calm down, before he did something he regretted later, like to choke Marianna to death or something like that. But he would get his revenge. If not today then tomorrow.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 May the revenge be with me**

Rath was trying to plan a act of vengeance since he woke up that morning. He couldn´t forget the embarrassing situation from yesterday evening. Ok, he had fixed his shirts with his powers after he calmed down, but that was not the point. He didn´t need to fix his shirts if Marianna would have kept her fingers away from his clothes. That was pure revenge on her part. For what he didn´t know, but it didn´t matter anyway. He would get her back for that. After some thinking he had the perfect plan of action. Marianna wouldn´t know what hit her. If she thought her prank was good she didn´t know him. He was the master of pranks and nobody could beat him. Not even a spoiled little princess like her. With that thought he made his way to the kitchen. Halfway there he saw Ava and Marianna on their way to the garden. Carefully he hid behind a statue, which portrayed a legend of their planet. Then he heard something quite interesting.

" You have to try it. It´s wonderful at night", Ava was really excited. Her whole face glowed.

" I don´t know. What if someone sees me", Marianna seemed to be not so ok with the suggestion Ava made.

" Nobody is there at this time. Trust me. Vilandra and I were there a few times. And we were alone the whole time", Ava wouldn´t give up. She wanted to do something nice for Marianna. She needed a little distraction. And a little time to think.

" Alright. If it will shut you up. I will visit this boiling spring", Marianna rolled her eyes at Ava. She was such a girl. But now she was curious about this spring. Maybe she could relax her still aching bones for a few hours or so.

" Great. I´ll show you the way there", Ava grasped the hands of Marianna and dragged her in the direction of her bedroom.

After both girls were out of sight, Rath came out of his hiding - place. That information was really helpful. Actually he wanted to put snails in her food, but this was better. He only had to wait until tonight. Thankfully he knew the way to the boiling spring. He met a girl there a few years ago and she wanted to be alone with him. Therefore the secluded meeting point. It was really quiet and peaceful, except for the noises they made themself. With a smile Rath went to the training ground. If he had to wait until tonight he could work out at least. But not too much. He still needed his strength.

After a few hours and a lovely dinner for once later, Rath walked to the boiling spring. It was not so far from the palace, but far enough that nobody would disturb. He went by the old trees whose leaves blossomed blue and yellow, the little stream whose water was red and the cave that was known as the home of a croubeeg ( on earth called grizzly bear ). Then he arrived at the boiling spring. Immediately he searched for a suitable hiding spot, which he found quickly. Quietly he hid behind a pricky shrub. He had to be careful or he would hurt himself at the thorns. Just as he decided to take another hideout, because a thorn stabbed at his bottom, he heard footsteps coming his way. Through a little hole in the bush he saw Marianna with a towel in her hand. For a moment she saw to the blue moon above and it seemed like she searched for something. But the moment went by as fast as it came. Slowly she took the hem of her shirt, pulled it over her head and threw it on the ground. Then she kicked her shoes off. After that came the pants. Now the only clothes on her body were her panties and her bra. Marianna took a look around to see if someone was near. To her relieve she was alone. That was the moment she unsnapped her bra and let it drop to her other clothes. It was a little bit cold, therefore Marianna jumped right in the bubbling water. Rath meanwhile had problems with his pants. They were a little tight at a certain place. If Marianna would have dropped her panties too, he would have made a mess in his pants. He had seen many naked girl, but none could compare with Mariannas body. Her breast were small but firm, her legs really long and she had curves at the right places. She had a body who made men howling like wolves. Rath shook his head. He was not here to observe her nude body. He had a mission to fulfill. He took a look at Marianna. Great she had her eyes closed and seemed to be relaxing. Maybe he should cancel his plan and jump in there too? No. Don´t let your mind get there. Rath put himself up and sneak quietly to the place where Mariannas clothes lay. Carefully he bent down and took the clothes. After that he retreated really quickly. His mission was almost completed. He couldn´t wait to see her face when she stormed angry to his bedroom. Only clad with her panties. With fast steps he went to his room and get rid of the evidence. Then he took a book from his shelf and sat on his armchair. He was sure that he wouldn´t read a line, but he had to make an impression that he was in his room the whole time. Everybody who would look in his room now would think he was reading a book peacefully. But his mind was elsewhere. He imagined how Marianna would waltz through the door and demand where he put her clothes. He would of course play the innocent who didn´t know where her clothes were. She would accuse him about stealing it and he would throw her on his bed. Then he wouldn´t let her out of his room the whole night. Suddenly he heard angy footsteps in the hallway. Immediately he put his nose deeper in the book to cover his laughter. Seconds later his door flew open and Marianna stormed pissed and clad only in the towel in his direction.

" Where are my clothes?", Marianna was at the end of her patience with him. He was like a kid trapped in a body of a man.

Rath tried to mask his joy. With a serious expression he dropped his book and faced Marianna." What?". Then he let his look wander up and down her body." What happened with your clothes?".

" Don´t play dumb with me. I know that you stole my clothes, you pervert!", Marianna was on the brink of exploding. She knew exactly that he did it.

" Are you crazy? Why should I steal your clothes?"

Marianna wanted to strangle him. " How should I know. Maybe for your pleasure or the get back at me for shrinking your shirts!".

" Finally you admit it. You shrunk my shirts on purpose", Rath jumped from his chair. Now he had Marianna dead on.

" I admit nothing. It was an accident. Nothing more nothing less. The world doesn´t resolve around you", screamed Marianna.

" Yeah, you should keep that in mind if you run around accusing people of stealing your clothes", now Rath was becoming really angry.

" Do you know how annoying you are. You´re like a too tall grown child", Marianna didn´t understand what has gotten into her. Why couldn´t they both act like grown ups. Everytime she was near Rath she transfered in a child.

" Look who´s talking", Rath seemed to think the same thing. Because he shook his head and began to laugh.

Marianna wanted to be angry at him for laughing, but she couldn´t. It was too funny. Here they were acting like spoiled little brats even through they should act like adults. They were soldiers in the army for heavens sake.

" Ok. I say we call it a truce and forget about everything", Marianna wanted to be the mature one and held her hand out for him.

Rath took it." I agree". Besides he wanted to avoid that his parents did notice something. He didn´t want to be punished for his childish behaviour.

" Can I have my clothes back then", Marianna wanted in her room asap. It was really cold now. And she had to cover her hardened nipples. She didn´t want Rath to think it was because of him.

" What do I get if I give you your clothes back", maybe she would kiss him. Yeah that would be nice.

" I let your balls in one piece", Marianna knew what he wanted. But he wouldn´t get it. At least not that easily.

Rath lost his colour for a moment. Hopefully she was only kidding. But he never knew with her." You wouldn´t do that".

" Try me", ok she wouldn´t do it, but his face was too funny.

" Alright. You win", Rath went to his wardrobe and snatched her clothes out of it. Then he gave them back to her.

" Thank you", Marianna bent slightly forward and kissed Rath straight on the mouth. Before he could deepen it she parted from him. Then she whispered in his ear." I hope you liked the show at the boiling spring".

With that Marianna went to her room and left a dumbfounded Rath back. He stood in his room with his mouth wide open. She knew he was there the whole time and she didn´t say anything. Why did she strip then if she knew that she wasn´t alone? A little smile appeared on his face. Yeah she wanted a piece of him. With proud steps he went to his bed.

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12 A new Challenge**

Rath walk the whole morning around with a big smile on his face. His family was really worried about that. They hadn´t seen him so happy ever and especially not that earlier. It was just after breakfast and usually Rath was not a morning person. He was grumpy and snappish. He needed a few hours to act like a normal person. But this morning he floated all cheerful in the dining room and greeted his family. He even kissed his mother and his sister on their cheeks. Zan and Vilandra were a tad bit suspicious about Rath´ good mood. They thought he was a shapeshifter or possessed. But after awhile they notized the reason for the turnabout. Vilandra was the first who realised that Rath darted sneaking glances at Marianna. She on the other hand tried everything to avoid his glances. But everybody who made the effort to look closer would see how her cheeks would turn red everytime she felt Rath heated eyes on her. After that Zan notized the same, too. Within less than half an hour the whole family knew or in this case guessed what was happening between them both. Mael couldn´t think about a time when he saw his son so happy. He faced his wife and squeezed her hand lovingly. But he knew the look. It was the look of a man who fell in love. Abidale seemed to have the same thougth, because she smiled at her husband. Yeah their boy was slowly growing up. Too bad that Rath was betrothed to another woman. King Salem meanwhile observed Rath and Marianna silently. He was stunned about the display. They never spoke a word to each other, but the body language was loud and very clear. He turned to Vilandra to see how she reacted to this new development. After all she was Rath´ fiance. But she seemed to be happy about it. She didn´t care that her soon to be husband had feelings for another woman. But that didn´t matter. They both had a commitment to the royal crown. Maybe he should call a meeting with Mael and Abidale. They would discuss the new situation and decide what to do. And that was what the parents did at the moment behind the closed door of the conference room.

Meanwhile Vilandra and Ava were on their way to the local market. Zan was in the library to read a book about his upcoming duties as king. And Rath was on his way to his daily exercise with the other soldiers. Today they would train with boring sticks. That would be a day with no action. But as he stepped in the training room he changed his mind. Immediately he went to the new arrival. It was not difficult to see that there was a new soldier under the group. Firstly every soldier starred a little bit stunned and secondly she was the only female in this room.

" What are you doing here?", he eyed the black clothes which clung to her body like a second skin. She looked so damn fable at the moment.

" I want to exercise like the rest of you", Marianna didn´t understand why he asked such a stupid question. What did it look like she was doing here? Bake cookies?

" You do know that you´re the only female in this room", Rath was not sure if this was such a great idea. She was so small and petite and the men were tall and strong. He didn´t want that she got hurt.

Marianna rolled her eyes. What did he try to tell her? She knew that she was the only person in this room with boobs." Thank you. And I thought that their were really ugly women". She slapped a hand at her forehead for emphasis.

" Don´t get sarcastic with me. I´m only looking out for you", Rath couldn´t believe how long the truce lasted. They survived the night and part of the morning without a fight. And now there were back to bitching.

Marianna knew that. But she was not a weakly little girl that needed a bodyguard. She survived worse things in her life. " I´m sorry. I appreciate that. But I think I can handle it", then she added to calm Rath." And if I don´t, I quit. Alright?".

Before Rath could give his approval, the replacement for his fathers job interrupted them both. He was usually the highest of the guards. But if Mael had something important to do he covered for him. He was really rude and had his firm principles. But he was the best man when it comes to defending and how to handle a bad situation.

" I´m sorry miss, but I think you´re in the wrong room", he knew the stories about her. But he couldn´t use a distraction in his exercise. Not that he was against women, but he knew that she wouldn´t make it through the training. Women didn´t have the strength.

" No sir, I think not", she wouldn´t budge from her spot. If he wanted her gone he had to remove her himself.

" That´s not a tea party here, missy!".

Marianna wanted to blast the damn bastard into the next millenium. But Rath jumped in between to prevent that something bad happened. " Nolak it´s alright. My father allowed it".

" Is that true", Nolak decided to speak with Mael later on. He didn´t trust that girl. She was trouble." Fine, but if something happens I tried warning you". With a last dissapproving look at Marianna he made his way to the the other soldiers.

Marianna glared right back at him. Something told her that she should keep an eye on him. His aura was really dark and it felt bad. He was not what he appeared to be.

" Dont mind him. He is really old fashioned and thinks that only men should do the fighing while the women take care of the offspring", a new face appeared suddenly besides Rath. He was really cute looking. He had iceblue eyes who sparkled mischievous, a friendly smile and short black hair. And he was as tall as Rath if not a little bit taller.

" Yeah I noticed that", Marianna eyed his body really slowly. He was nice built. Not as nice as Rath. But then she got distracted from a grunt near her. She turned to Rath and noticed that he glared at her and then at the other boy.

" Oh were are my manners. My name is Larek", he held his hand out for her.

" My name is Marianna", finally a man who knew how to treat a girl properly. Not that she was against the attention of Rath. But it was nice to know that there were other men out there who didn´t think a girl loved it when a man tried to piss her off at the first meeting.

" I know. I´ve heard really great stuff about you", Larek was intrigued from the girl. She was prettier than he was told from Zan and Rath. And he liked it that she was not a woman who let someone dictate her life.

" Don´t believe everything you hear. I swear I´m not that bad", Marianna couldn´t believe that she was flirting with Larek. What was wrong with her? Yesterday she stripped for Rath and a few hours later she tried to put a move on Larek. She was sick. That was the only explanation.

" Could you both stop that. I want to keep my food down", Rath had enough. How could Marianna flirt with Larek when he stood near. Women were really weird. At first she kissed him and now she made eyes at Larek. What was wrong with her? With that Rath stomped angry away.

Larek and Marianna starred shocked after his retreating back. What was that? The whole morning he was in a good mood and suddenly he went back to his grumpy self. Larek knew why. He heard from Zan that Rath seemed to cast a eye at Marianna. But he didn´t do something wrong. He was only friendly. Ok that was not the whole truth. He liked Marianna from the moment she stood against Nolak. But he wouldn´t make a move as long as Rath seemed to be interested.

" Was it me or something I said?", Marianna didn´t know why she felt so bad. It wasn´t like she and Rath had a relationship. But why felt she like she cheated on him, althrough she didn´t do more than talking?

" No. I think it was me. I´m poaching in his territory", Larek didn´t want to be on Rath´ bad side. He was scary even if you was his friend. But he didn´t want to find out what he would be when he was really angry.

Marianna didn´t believe that. They both talked for maximum one minute. They didn´t rip their clothes off and had hot sweaty sex on the floor. But that confirmed her suspicion about men. Their were really sensitive. And a strange species, too. With that thought she began her training. After all she was here to work out and not to talk.

**A few hours later**

Mael, Abidale, Queen Lutezia and King Salem had finished their meeting. It was a really long and heated discussion. But finally they came to an agreement that both sides approved of. It was the best for all parties involved. The parents got their marriage and the kids had to live with the decision if they wanted or not. But they knew that one child would not be dissappointed. And the others had to get accustomized with the new situation. They only wanted to make their children happy and allow them to live a peaceful and long life. Pleased with the outcome the parents went to their seperate ways. But it was decided that the children would learn the news at the party who would take place in exact two weeks. Hopefully they made the right decision.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13 New friends and new enemies**

Marianna was in a great mood all day and that with a good reason. The exercise ran smoothly and she was able to impress most of the soldiers. Even Nolak seemed to be slightly stunned, because he stopped sending her glares. He was really strange and he made her skin crawl. But Rath said that he was trustworthy and the best guard in the castle. However something told her that she had to be careful around him. She decided to keep him always in her sight, no matter what everybody thought about him. Her instinct said that she had to be on guard when he was near and her instinct was never wrong. Thank god he would be not present in the next training, that was a relieve. Marianna was excited about the exercise and not only because Larek would be there. He was a really funny guy. Reminded her about her best friend Marius. He told her that he didn´t want to be a soldier. He did that only to please his father, who wanted his son as a fighter. But in reality Larek was a lousy warrior and he wouldn´t survive if a war would break out. However he had other qualities. He was good in science and technology. He was really bright and he had a mind full of new ideas. Marianna liked that about him. It would defenitly never be boring. And he is the complete opposite from Rath. Speaking of Rath, he was really strange the whole time they were in the training room. He seemed to be angry and moody. Sometimes he would sent glares to Larek or her and sometimes he ignored them both. Marianna didn´t know what bug crawled in his butt and died there, but he behaved like a jerk. At first he was the cheerfulness in person and a few hours later he pulled the heads off from people who dared to talk to him. He was the strangest person on this planet and Marianna didn´t know what to think of him at times. He was hot one time and the other ice cold. And she didn´t think it had something to do with the way she was talking to Larek or like he said poaching in Rath terrority. It´s not like she was together with Rath and flirted with a stranger infront of him. But why did he act so weird? That was the only bummer in her mood. Suddenly she was thrown out of her thoughts when some one tapped on her shoulder. She must have spaced out again, because she didn´t notice that somebody approached her. She was sitting on the little bench near the fountain in the garden and tried to relax, before the exercise. The day was so beautiful and she didn´t want to waste it indoors. As she turned her head to the intruder, she was sure that her decision was right.

" Hey Dollface, I brought something for you", Larek stood there in all his glory with a little blue flower in his hand, which he held in her direction. His smile was contagious and before Marianna knew what she was doing a smile broke out on her face.

" Thank you", Marianna took the flower and smelled it. The smell reminded her about the good days at home. Her mother loved flowers very much and everday there was fresh flowers on the dining table. " To what do I owe this pleasure of receiving a flower from you?".

" I saw you sitting here. You looked like you needed a brightening", Larek placed his butt next to Marianna. He was actually searching for her. He talked with Zan this morning and he said that he was on Rath´ bad side now. He wanted to know what there was between Marianna and Rath before he faced Rath.

" That´s really thoughtful of you", she had never received a flower. Not even from Lykus and he was her fiancee. But she knew that men didn´t give out flowers without wanting something in return." But now tell me the real reason".

Larek was impressed about Marianna. She let nothing fool her or he was simply too transparent. " Why do you think there´s another reason for giving you a flower. I´m a pretty thoughtful guy, you know". After he received a unbelievable look from Marianna he knew that he had to tell the truth for his visit. " Ok, you got me. I´m here to know about the relationsship between you and Rath".

" We have no relationsship", Marianna wanted to know why he thought that. Rath was engaged to Vilandra or almost engaged. But he was off limit for her and she respected that. " Why are you asking?"

" I talked to Zan and he told me that Rath is extremly angry with me".

" And that´s something new?", Marianna didn´t Rath any other way. But it would confirm her thoughts. He acted out of character even for his circumstances. Larek seemed to think so, too or he wouldn´t be so concerned.

Larek had to laugh about that. She knew Rath not for a long time, but she had him already figured out. Smart girl. " Usually no. But he was never angry with me".

" No? Then you must do something wrong", or maybe he reserved that only for her. She had seen him mad so often that she thought that was his nature. But she forgot sometimes that other people knew another side of him. A side she had yet to discover. " Did you try talking to him?".

" Do you think I´m stupid! I want to keep my balls attached to my body", there were few who had survived an angry conversation with Rath and one of them sat across from him. She was the only one he knew could stand against Rath. " Besides I wanted to know first if they was something between you two".

" Don´t worry. There is absolutely nothing between Rath and me", Marianna didn´t tell Larek about the kisses and the little strip by the boiling spring. He didn´t need to know that. Besides that were only exceptions and wouldn´t happen any time soon. " If you want I can talk to Rath?".

" No, it´s alright. We´re friends and the whole thing will go by", Larek hoped that at least. No matter what Marianna thought, there was something. And everybody saw that. Even the people outside the kingdom noticed the attraction.

" So now that the serious discussion is out of the way we can talk about more important things", Marianna wanted to know more about Larek. He was the only male friend she had now and she missed having a male friend.

Larek leaned back slowly and stretched his arms away from his body. Carefully he dropped his left arm behind Mariannas backside. Then he slid a little closer to Marianna. " And that would be?".

" You know what I mean", Marianna lifted her right eyebrow and tried to look real sexy. She knew that that was only fun. Therefore she played along. Too bad that she couldn´t feel more for Larek besides friendship. He would be a great boyfriend.

Larek couldn´t resist any longer. He broke out into loud laughter. After a few seconds Marianna did the same. And there they both sat on the bench and laughed together.

**In the castle**

Rath stood now for a half an hour at the big window which showed the whole garden. He saw the little display between Larek and Marianna. At first he didn´t think to much about that. They only talked. Althrough he didn´t like it that Larek seemed so interested in Marianna. But they only spoke with each other. However when Larek laid his arms on Mariannas back something in Rath told him to eliminate the threat. He didn´t know where those feelings were coming from. Larek was his friend and Marianna not his girlfriend. He had to do everything in his power to hold his anger at bay, before he destroyed something. He couldn´t hear what they were talking but the body language spoke volumes.

" Hey Rath. What are you doing here?", Vilandra was searching for Marianna. She had great news, but she couldn´t tell that Ava or her family. They wouldn´t understand it and the only person she could confide in was Marianna.

" What does it look like I´m doing!", Rath was in no mood to deal with Vilandra at the moment. She always put her nose in things that didn´t concern her.

Vilandra saw out of the window and discovered Marianna in a heated discussion with Larek. No wonder Rath was so pissed. " It looks like you´re spying on Marianna".

" I´m not spying on her. I only want to look out for her", ok that was not the best reply. Larek was no threat and Vilandra knew him better than that.

Vilandra tried to hold her laughter in. " What do think Larek will do? Kill her with his jokes? No better he bores her to death".

" Your really funny", Rath was close to lose it. If Vilandra started to laugh he would surely do something stupid. But she was right. Larek was not dangerous, at least not to Marianna." I don´t know what she sees in him?".

Now Vilandra realised what was up here and why Rath was so moody. Why didn´t she know it sooner. It was so obvious. " You´re jeaulous!".

Rath turned finally around and faced Vilandra. " No I´m not". And if he were he wouldn´t admit it. Not to Vilandra and not to somebody.

" Yeah. Try to tell yourself that and then maybe you believe it", he was jeaulous and if he would say the opposite a hundred time, she knew better. Rath loved Marianna. Now everything made sense. Vilandra was really happy for him. Maybe now their parents would accept that a marriage between Rath and her would be wrong.

" Do you have nothing better to do than bugging me?", Rath turned around and saw through the window again. He wanted to watch Marianna more. She looked like an angel when she laughed. Her whole face seemed to glow.

" Actually yes. I wanted to talk to Marianna", Vilandra almost forgot that she had something to do. She saw on her timer. She didn´t have much time, before Marianna had to be in the training room. She had to be fast now. " Maybe I can ask her out about Larek?".

Rath shrugged his shoulders. " Do what you want".

" I will do that. And if I´m in a good mood I tell you what I found out", with that Vilandra made her way to the door which lead outside. But before she went through it she stopped and turned to Rath. He was so far gone that he didn´t notice it himself. Love was a strange thing.

**In the garden**

Larek and Marianna talked about the training when a shadow fell over them. Immediately Larek jumped to his feet, afraid it could be Rath and he was too close to Marianna. But to his relieve it was only Vilandra.

" Hey Vilandra. What are you doing here?", Marianna seemed to be really popular today. At first Larek and now Vilandra. And she felt the presence of Rath since she took a seat on the bench.

" The weather is so wonderful today", Vilandra had the feeling that she interrupted something and she didn´t like the feeling. She tried to tell Marianna her real reason with her eyes. But Marianna didn´t seem to catch it.

" I think I go now. I have something to do", Larek in contrast understood the signals. Vilandra wanted to be alone with Marianna. " We´ll see each other later", with that he said good bye and dissapeared.

Immediately after Larek was out of the way, Vilandra took his place besides Marianna. She was really curious what happened between them. It looked more like a friendship. Poor Rath. It seemed like he didn´t have a chance. No, she couldn´t let that happen. Not when she was so close to prevent the engagement from happening. She wouldn´t let herself hold up about something so trivial. And if she had to force Marianna to love Rath.

" What´s up with you two. You looked really cosy?".

" It´s nothing", Marianna had to quell the urge to roll her eyes. Why was everybody so interested in her none existing lovelife. Larek thought she had something with Rath and Vilandra thought she had something with Larek.

" It didn´t look like nothing to me", and to Rath. Vilandra saw the rage that was waiting to break out.

" But it was nothing. He is a friend. Nothing more", Marianna meant no harm by it. Her two best friends were male. Was there a rule that didn´t accept friendship between different gender?

" I think Rath will be glad to hear that".

Marianna snapped her head in Vilandra´s direction. " What has Rath to do with it?".

" He saw you both and he didn´t like the way Larek touched you", Vilandra could practical feel the rage in Rath. He was close to losing his control. Any longer and she was sure that the palace would not be standing there anymore. " He´s totally jeaulous".

One part of Marianna was happy about that. But another couldn´t believe it. Why should he be jeaulous about something as harmless as a conversation. Besides he had no right to be angry, at least she was not engaged and could do what she wanted. He on the other hand was engaged and would be married in a few weeks. " I think not. You have to be mistaken".

" Believe me. I know Rath well enough. I´ve never seen him so worked up about a girl before", Vilandra wanted to take Marianna´s head and smash it against something hard. Why couldn´t Marianna admit that she felt something for Rath, too? It was so obvious that she had feelings for him. But why did she try to ignore them?

Marianna couldn´t believe her ears. Did Vilandra try to play matchmaker? Rath was her future husband. " Doesn´t this bother you? I mean your engaged with him".

Vilandra didn´t want to, but she had to laugh. How could Marianna say something like that to her? She and Rath. Ewwww. Already the imagination let her stomach do flip flops. It was like she would do the nasty with Zan. Double ewwwww. But Marianna didn´t know that. She only knew about the upcoming engagement between Rath and her. But she didn´t know that they weren´t in love with each other.

Marianna found that question not so amusing. She didn´t know why Vilandra broke out in laughter. Did she say something strange? " Why are you laughing?".

" Do you think if I had any romantic feeling about Rath I would be here and tell you that Rath has feelings for you?", the girl was too clueless sometimes.

" But you´re engaged?", Marianna didn´t understand anything anymore. Why would they be marrying if they didn´t love each other? What was the point of that. She wanted to marry Lykus because she thought she loved him. And she thought that it was the same for Rath and Vilandra.

" Only on paper. Our parents made the decision without us. It has something to do with tradition or so. But Rath and I are not in love", maybe that was the reason why Marianna was holding back. She thought she would hurt some one. If Vilandra wouldn´t find the whole situation so funny she would be moved that Marianna wanted to be a good friend.

Marianna was glad for the first time, that her father ignored her most of her life. Otherwise she would have been betrothed to a man she didn´t love like Vilandra. Thank god her father paid no attention on her love life or what she did with who. " That sounds aweful. It must be horrible to marry some one your not loving".

" Not anymore. I think I´ve found something that will convince our parents that a marriage between me and Rath would be a big mistake", Vilandra´s face showed complete happiness. Obviously she had something planned.

" And that would be?".

" A threat to the good reputation of the kingdom. What do you think will my father do, when he realize that his daughter and his son in law are unfaithful", Vilandra knew her father and she knew that he would do everything to keep his reputation intact. Besides he wanted his daughter happy and if she didn´t get what she wanted she could get really annoying.

" You´re evil, you know that", Marianna didn´t know that Vilandra could be so headstrong. She liked it. It was always good to fight for the things you believed in. She learned that lesson a long time ago. You had to fight for the things you thought matter and you didn´t have to be satisfied with less.

" I only know what I want. And believe me it´s not Rath", Vilandra shruddered by the thought. Even if she would have feelings for Rath, which she didn´t, she had no chance. He was so in love with Marianna that he didn´t see anyone else. " I want a man who sweeps my off my feet".

" Do you have somebody in mind?", now Marianna was intruged. She saw the smile and the glowing. Obviously there was some one special out there who could make Vilandra happy. Hopefully he was worthy of her and didn´t play with her heart.

" That´s actually the reason I was looking for you. I met a man yesterday", Vilandra couldn´t hide her joy any longer. If she didn´t tell Marianna soon she was going to burst." His name is Davico, he´s the same age and he looks really hot".

" Really. I´m glad for you", and because Marianna couldn´t restrain herself, she embraced Vilandra wholeheartly. Usually she was not so mushy. But since she had two girlfriends she learned that showing your feelings was not so bad. " You have to introduce him. I have to see if he is worthy of you or not".

" I will do that sometime", Vilandra saw on her timer. Marianna didn´t have the time, because she had to be in the training room in about five minutes. Otherwise she would have took her along to meet Davico. " But not now. You have to be at the training in exact five minutes".

Marianna took Vilandra´s arm and saw on her timer. Damn she was going to be late, if she didn´t get her butt in gear. She swore a blue streak. " I have to go now. But tonight we have a little chat about this Davico. We meet in my room and then you can tell me everything".

" Ok. After the dinner. And then you have to confess about Rath", Vilandra rose from her position and said goodbye. With a smile she saw after Marianna who ran like the devil was after her through the door which lead inside. Now everything was going to be alright. Vilandra had found her other half, Rath has found his also and nobody was going to destroy that. Not even their parents.

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14 Two boys and a bloody nose**

Rath was still standing at the window and tried to understand what the two girls where talking about. A long time he wanted to read from their lips, but they both had turned their heads in another direction. Besides he couldn´t lip-reading. Then he opened the window to hear better. But that was a bust too. They were to far away. Now he stood there like an idiot and observed Marianna and Vilandra like a perv. What has got into him these days? He should concentrate on his training. He wanted to be a commander like his father eventually in the near future. And what did he do instead. He wondered if Marianna had feelings for Larek and what she thought about him. How pathetic was that? Rath shook his head. No he wouldn´t be a slave to his hormones. Just as he wanted to turn around he saw how Marianna jumped to her feet. She seemed to look at something at Vilandras wrist. What could possible be so interesting that Marianna would act so strange? Suddenly Marianna ran fast through the door and whizzed by him. During the short time she was in earshot he could make out a few words, which didn´t make much sense. Late, training, Mael, kick ass. Rath needed a few seconds to undestand the meaning behind it. Oh shit. He saw on his timer. Damn he was going to be late to his training. With that he ran after Marianna. For a girl she was really fast and quick on her feet, althrough she was in a light disadvantage because of her short feets. But nontheless she was a few seconds earlier in the training room than him.

" Finally our last few guest are there. Now we can start with the exercise", Mael threw an angry look at his son. Rath was usually never late. Hopefully it would stay at this one time.

Rath tried to avoid the glare of his father. Therefore he made his way to his trainig partner immediately. Now he had to make an affort to reassure his father. But he knew that he could prepare himself for a lecture tonight at dinner. He could recited what his father would tell him. He had to be a example for others and he shouldn´t think because he was the son of the commander that he could be careless. The same old story over and over again. So what, he was late for the first time. It could happen to anybody. Besides he was not the only one late. Marianna was only a little bit faster than he.

" So today we are starting to practise with the sticks. I know what you are thinking right now. How can something simple be good if I´m fighting for my life", Mael stopped and faced every of his men and the one girl. He saw the faces and knew he was right about the statement. " I will tell you why it could save your life sometime. What are you doing if you´re alone and have no weapon at hand? Some would say nothing and run. Everybody who thinks so too can go now, because then he is in the wrong place" Mael stopped again. Nobody made a move. Good. " But a real soldier tries to find something he could use as a weapon and fight with it. There are no bad weapons, only bad soldiers. Tried to remember my words. Maybe it could save your life in the future".

Mael stepped to the side and observed how everybody stared at the sticks in their hands. Some made funny comments about it, other played with it. Only two people in this room tried to find the right handle to hold their weapons. One of them was Rath and the other was Marianna.

" What are you waiting for? A written inventation? Get started", bellowed Mael after a few minutes.

Immediately everybody started the exercise. Mael watched from the sideline. Most of his men were really bad with the sticks. More often they bashed next to their partners or they let the sticks fall to the floor. He shook his head. They had much more training to do. Then he glanced at Marianna. She seemed to be born with a stick. She handled it like she did nothing else in her life. Larek had no chance against her. Within a few minutes Marianna had disarmed him. The girl was a born warrior and if she would learn to control her power she could be dangerous for all her enemies. After he was sure that Marianna and Larek worked again together he turned to his son. Rath was the same as Marianna. He was a born warrior and leader. He would be his successor sometime, that was for sure. He knew it since he saw his son fighting with Zan when they were still kids. And now it was obvious that Rath would be a great leader. He and Zan would carry on the kingdom like their parents.

" Oh dammit Larek", Mael was startled out of his thoughts through the loud cry that was coming from Marianna. Immediately he walked in their direction.

" I´m sorry. That was not my intention", Larek looked like a mix between fear and worry.

Mael stepped to Marianna and tried to see what she was hiding behind her hands, which she held infront of her nose. At a closer look he saw something red tripping from her hands. " What happened?".

" Nothing big. I was being careless for a moment and Larek hit me in my face with the stick", to prove her point she dropped her hands from her face.

Mael took a closer look at the damage. The nose was red and a little swollen. But it didn´t seem to be broken. " I´ll bring you to the healers".

" No. It´s nothing. It will be healed before I wake up tomorrow. Trust me. I survived worst", Marianna didn´t want to be treated like a baby. Besides it didn´t hurt anymore.

Before Mael could reply something he was interrupted by a little fight between Rath and Larek. Both men were lying on the floor and were trying to punch each other. It was no brainer who would win this fight. Rath was more heftier than Larek.

" You could have really hurt Marianna you bastard", Rath was really pissed. How dare Larek to hurt Marianna.

" I didn´t want to, it happened", Larek tried to defend himself. He didn´t want to harm her. Really. Why should he hurt the girl he had feelings for?

" Stop it. Both of you", Mael couldn´t believe it. They acted like children and that only because of a girl. Sometimes he was glad that this time was over and he was smarter now.

But Rath and Larek didn´t seem to hear a word Mael said. They were so absorbed in their battling that they didn´t hear anything. They kept up with the cursing and the flying fists. But then suddenly both men were teared apart and thrown at the wall opposite each other. Mael was slightly stunned about the act. He turned to Marianna. She had both arms stretched from her body. Every arm pointed to the directions Rath and Larek were pinned to the wall.

" Are you both out of your minds?", Marianna was so sick of their behaviour. Rath seemed to think that he had to defend her." What were you thinkin or were you thinkin at all?".

" It was all his fault. He...", Rath wanted to lay all the blame on Larek. After all he was the one who hurt her. But Marianna interrupted him before he could tell her that.

" Don´t try blaming Larek for your childish behaviour. I know why you attacked him and it had nothing to do with hurting me. You were angry with him before he hit me with the stick. I don´t know the reason why you´re angry at him nor do I want to know it. But if you don´t start acting like a grown up I will kick you ass to another planet and back. Are we clear on that", Marianna enjoyed it that she had the upper hand for the moment. And maybe if she was lucky Rath would learn something. But she didn´t believe it.

" But..", Rath wanted to have the last say in this. He couldn´t let Marianna win this fight. But it didn´t look to good for him. Because she wouldn´t let him have a word.

" I don´t think you understand me. I asked you if we´re clear on that", no Marianna wouldn´t let him get away with it this time. He did something wrong and now he was faced with the consequences.

" Yeah, We´re clear", what. She wouldn´t give up before she had her wish. Why fight it she would get her will eventually. Besides he wanted down.

Marianna seemed to be satisfied with the answer. Then she heared a quiet snicker next to her. Immediately she turned to Larek, who couldn´t hold his laughter in. " Now to you. You heared what I said to Rath and you should remember it, because that applies to you, too. And don´t think that´s an empty threat. I will do it. Understood?".

Larek thought it was best to do as Marianna said. He knew what power she had and he wanted to remain in one piece." Yeah understood. Loud and clear".

" That´s what I wanted to hear. Now be good boys and put this stupid fight behind you. And act like friends, again", Marianna dropped Larek and Rath to the ground. Now that she said what she wanted to say she could rest happily. Besides she showed the other soldiers that it wasn´t smart to go against her.

Rath, who was really embarassed by the whole display, took his sticks and tried to do like nothing happened. Mael who watched in bewilderment how Marianna put both men in their place with little to no effort on her part was really proud of her. Now he knew that he and the other parents made the right decision.

" So now that the show is over I think we can pick up where we left off", but he had to change something first. Slowly he went to Marianna. " I think you should swap your partner. It would be better if you would train with Rath".

" I don´t think it´s a good idea", she had embarassed him infront of all the soldiers just now. It could get really ugly with him.

" I don´t care. You need a equal opponent and Rath is one of the best", and if she had someone who could ward off her blows Mael was sure that she could be as good as Rath if not better.

Marianna was really moved. Althrough Mael didn´t say it out loud he told her without words that she was good. And how could she refuse something like that. Without another word she went to Rath, who was not amused about the switch. But he didn´t utter a word, because his father glared at him. Therefore he started immediately with the training. Marianna was thankful that he didn´t say anything. So they both could concentrate on the task at hand. Over a hour they both attacked each other. Marianna performed a perfect blow which Rath dodged instantly. And so it went the whole time. Nobody wanted to be the loser in this fight. Mael couldn´t take his eyes off of them both. It was like they knew the punches from each other. Their bodies moved in perfect tandem. Like they did that a long time already. That was the reason why he wanted to train the younger generation of soldiers. Mael decided to speak with both after the exercise. Which was, now that he saw on his timer, right now.

" Ok everybody. We´re finished. See you all tomorrow", he waited till everybody went outside. Thank god Rath and Marianna were the last in the room. " I have to talk to you both. So if you have nothing better to do tomorrow, we´re meeting after lunch at the training ground", Mael waited till he received nods from both and then he disspeared through the door.

" What do you think he wants to tell us?", Marianna didn´t have a good feeling about that. Hopefully it was no lecture. She didn´t think that she did something wrong.

" I don´t know. But if he was angry with us he wouldn´t wait until tomorrow to yell at us", Rath hoped that at least. Maybe it was because their were to late today or the little stunt they were doing before.

" I hope so", Marianna wanted to believe it. But Rath seemed not so sure himself.

" How are your nose? Does it still hurt?", Rath stared at Mariannas face. It seemed not so bad anymore. The swelling was gone, but it was still red.

" Not if I move it", Marianna smiled at Rath. He was worried. That was so sweet of him. " Tomorrow it looks as new. At least I hope so".

" If not you can punch my nose and then we look the same", Rath laughed at that thought. He could picture them with their red big noses wandering through the castle.

" That´s really sweet", Marianna caressed his left cheek. Then she moved past Rath without looking back. She was starved and dinner was almost ready. But before she went through the door she stopped" But don´t tempt me, I might take your offer. I´m still pissed at you for punching Larek".

" And that´s something new?", Rath couldn´t help himself he put on his famous smirk. Too bad Marianna couldn´t see it now.

" No. So stop smirking. It´s not as sexy as you think", with that Marianna made her way to the dining room. Her stomach growled already.

Rath couldn´t believe it. Either she had supernatural powers or she knew him too good now. How did she know what he did without looking. He had do ask her that sometime. Now he was starving and the great smell of food attracted him to the direction of the dining room.

**After dinner in the room of Marianna**

Marianna sat eager on her little bed and Vilandra was opposite her. Like they both promised they meet after dinner in Mariannas room. They had so much to tell.

" So. Now I want to know everything from this mystical Davico" Marianna was on the brink to burst with excitement. She never had a girlfriend and she enjoyed these moments.

Vilandra´s complete face broke out in a smile. She couldn´t hold it in any longer." I meet him down by the boiling spring. He said that he got lost, because he just moved here".

" I don´t care what he said. I want to know how he looked like", the appearance was far more important than his ability to talk.

" Oh he has short black hair and really beautiful black eyes. He is a bit taller than me. His hands are big and soft. His voice is deep with a touch of power. And he is a great kisser", Vilandra was deep in her memories. He was the father of her future children. She knew it deep down inside.

" You kissed him!", Marianna was surprised. At least she knew Rath a bit longer before it came to a kiss. " You don´t even know him that long".

Vilandra either didn´t notice Mariannas little outburst or she didn´t care, because she continued like Marianna hadn´t said something. " Doesn´t matter. Sometimes you see someone and you know immediately that he´s the right one".

" I don´t want to burst your bubble, but don´t you think it´s a little too fast", Marianna hated to burst the good mood Vilandra was in.

" No. I know in my heart that he´s the man I will marry someday", Vilandra wouldn´t let something get between her and Davico. Even if that something was her family.

" Ok", if Marianna didn´t know better, she would think Vilandra was brainwashed. But as long as Vilandra was happy, who was she to destroy it. " If you think so".

" I know so", Vilandra couldn´t get rid of her smile. Then she remembered about the rumour she heared. " Enough of me. I want to hear about the incident today at the exercise".

" I don´t know what you´re talking about. Tell me more about your feelings", Marianna knew that she tried to stall the talk about Rath. Maybe Vilandra would fall for it.

" Don´t try to avoid it. I heared from Zan about the fight between Larek and Rath", Vilandra wouldn´t fall for the oldest trick. She grew up with Rath and she knew when someone tried to avoid a subject.

" It was nothing. Really. Larek hit me with a stick. My nose began to bleed. Rath and Larek fought with each other. That was all", and Vilandra wouldn´t get more out of her. She didn´t see anything unusual in it.

" That´s nothing to you!", Vilandra couldn´t believe it. Why didn´t Marianna see that Rath felt so much for her that he even punched his friend. He was usually not for violence. He was all speak but no action. " I think your underestimating the situation here".

" I don´t think so. Why should I make more of it if it isn´t so", ok Marianna knew why Larek and Rath fought and she knew also that she should be glad. But she didn´t want to destroy a friendship. Not like that.

" Because Rath punched Larek not because he hurt some one, he hurt you. And if you didn´t notice, he has really strong feelings for you", Vilandra wanted to take something heavy and whack Marianna with it until she finally realised what everybody knew already.

" Can we please not talk about it anymore", Marianna was slightly uncomfortable with the topic. Of course she knew that Rath was attracted to her. But she was not sure if Rath felt that because he wanted out of the engagement or because he saved her life.

" Why do you fight against your feelings? I know you feel something for Rath, too".

Marianna knew that Vilandra wouldn´t budge from the subject. Maybe she could try it with the twisted truth." Because he´s engaged and althrough you have no romantically feelings for each other you have a commitment towards your parents and your kingdom. I don´t want to be responsible for breaking that".

" That´s bshit and you know it. Now tell me the real reason", Marianna wouldn´t get away without telling her the truth. She knew there was more to.

" I don´t know what you want me to say. I just told you the reason", if Vilandra wanted to be stubborn so could she. She wouldn´t get something out of her today. Maybe never.

Vilandra seemed to think about it. " Ok. I give up. For now at least. But don´t think I won´t get it out of you sometime".

" Thank you. Now tell me what I should expect at the meeting with the commander?".

Vilandra said nothing, but broke out in laughter. Rath and Marianna were in so much trouble.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15 Decisions and other problems**

The weather was awful the next day. All along it rained. The ground was softened and muddy. The sky was really dark and the three suns hid behind thick, gray clouds.The wind blew forcefully and the trees looked like they would fly away any moment. Everybody stayed in their dwellings. Nobody dared to move a foot outside, afraid they could catch a cold or get dirty. Only two people stood wet and frozen at the training ground of the palace. Not that they wanted to stand there in the damn weather. They had a meeting and they didn´t even know why. All they knew was that it was really important. If they had a say in the matter they would be inside and doing something fun.

" I´m cold", Marianna had her arms wrapped around her body. It was fing cold and she stood there like she had nothing better to do. Thank god she was not alone. That would have pissed her off more.

" Yeah me, too", Rath tried to keep himself warm with movement. If he wasn´t careful his balls would be freezing off. What could his father possibly thought to let them meet outside in this weather.

" I can´t feel my legs anymore", Marianna was not in the best mood right now. Then a thought occured her and her face changed its expression." Are they still there".

Rath glanced at Marianna. He let his look wander over her wet clothes, which revealed all the right places and stopped at her feet. " Yeah. They´re still there".

Marianna wanted to bitch a little bit longer about the cold weather and the damn rain, but she was stopped when Mael suddenly appeared. He was clad in his raincoat and he looked really dry. " What are you doing in this weather? You´ll catch your deaths here!".

Rath and Marianna stared at each other. Did they mishear the meeting place? But if that was the case, why did both hear the same? Rath was the first who spoke." You said we are meeting at the training ground".

" Yes. But I couldn´t knew that the weather would be so nasty today", Mael shook his head. He thought those two were smarter. He was on the brink to break out in laughter. No wonder they both looked really funny, all wet and pissed off. " Did you not hear when I told you we are meeting in the training room because of the weather?".

Rath thought about it. No he couldn´t remember that his father told him that. " When was that?".

" After Lunch. Just before you were in a hurry to leave your seat", Mael should have known better. Rath was no great listener. Especially if he was far away with his thoughts.

Rath scratched his eyebrow slightly nervous. Damn he didn´t hear that, because he was too busy staring at Marianna. And he thought about how he could convince her about his feelings. " Sorry. I didn´t catch that".

" It´s alright. But now let´s go. It´s freezing cold out here", with that Mael made his way to the dry and warm palace.

Marianna would have beat Rath to death if her limbs wouldn´t be deep-frozen. Instead she threw him her meanest glare. If looks could kill he would have died instantly. " If I have feelings in my arms again, prepare yourself for a beating".

" Great. It´s my fault again", Rath didn´t have the nerve to listen to Maria bitch about his failures. Did she think he only did that to piss her off? Then he would let her wait in this weather alone, while he watched from a warm place.

" Of course it´s your fault", Marianna threw her hands, as far as her frozen limbs would let her, in the air. Then because she couldn´t help herself she pushed Rath to the side and stomped angry off the field.

Rath went immediately after her and tried to catch up. " Do you have to bitch at everything I do?".

" I´m not speaking with you", Marianna threw over her shoulder. Because of him she probably catched a cold or a running nose. She hated to be ill.

" But you just did", she was just too funny when she was mad at him. He took a sick pleasure out of it. Maybe he was crazy. But he liked it. Much.

Marianna knew what he tried to do. But she wouldn´t give him the satisfaction and fall in his trap. Not this time.

Mael meanwhile was in the exercise room and waited for Rath and Marianna. He couldn´t believe that they were outside the whole time. The weather was aweful and nobody dared to sat a foot out there. But he had to give them credit for it. Every other member of the royal army would have left or wouldn´t have appeared at all. That was the actual reason why he wanted to speak with them. They were different than the others. They fought hard and didn´t show any weaknesses. And they were the strongest in the whole bunch. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted. He could hear his charges in the hall outside. They were arguing as usual. Mael rubbed his face. He would definitily get a heartattacked because of them. If they didn´t try to play pranks on each other, they were fighting. Hopefully they learned to work together, soon. Some of his men were already placing bets on who would win the next fight.

" Don´t you ever shut up or do you actually like listining to yourself", Marianna was the first one through the door. She looked like she would snap every moment. It didn´t look good for his son.

Rath wanted to retort some nasty remark, but he swallowed it quickly when he saw the amused face of his father. But he swore that she would get back for that when they were alone.

" Are you both done now? Or should I wait some more", if Mael wouldn´t find the whole situation so funny, he would be really pissed right now. But it was nice to see that his son was capable to love someone besides his family.

Marianna sent a last glare in Rath´s direction, before she faced Mael. " We´re done now".

" Thank you. Then I can tell you the reason why I wanted to speak with you both", Mael noticed that Rath and Marianna lost their colour for a moment. They probably thought they would be yelled at. " Don´t worry it´s not a lecture", Rath and Marianna breathed out relieved." You know I´m looking for someone who takes my place as a commander in the near future", Mael waited till he received at nod from both." I always knew that Rath would be that one. But he wasn´t ready yet. That was until you", he pointed at Marianna." Showed up. He has still much to learn, but I think now is the right time for the training".

" Great. And what has that to do with me?", Marianna didn´t know what the whole point of this conversation was. Ok Rath would take after his father, naturally. But why was she here?

" Actually for the same reason. I observed you both and what I saw made my extremly proud. Therefore I decided to train the both of you", Mael knew it was really strange that he educated two soldiers. But they both were great and he couldn´t decide between them.

" Wow. I mean. Wow. I don´t know what to say", Marianna was close to tears. She was really moved that Mael trusted her enough to offer her such a position.

" That´s a first", Rath couldn´t believe it. He had to share the position with her. They couldn´t decide one thing without biting the heads off of each other. How should they leading an army that way? Oh boy what did his father think by that.

" But that means more work out and the assignment will be harder than usual", Mael observed their reaction. Rath seemed to accept it. He know what was demanded of him. Marianna was slightly undecided. " You don´t have to tell me your answer right away. Think about it and then inform me about your decision".

" That´s not necessary", Rath wanted this position since he was old enough to hold a weapon. He often watched his father when he barked orders or tried to show the newbies what they had to do. And now he had the chance to that and he didn´t need time to think about it. " I´ll do it".

Marianna didn´t time either. " I´m in. When do we start?".

Mael smiled at that. He knew they would do it. But at first they had one more lesson to learn before they could begin with the exercise. Althrough he dreaded the chaos they both would surely left behind. However it was necessary. " Tomorrow. Early in the morning after breakfast".

" Alright. We will be there", Rath was excited, althrough he didn´t show it. For the first time he finally knew that all the hard work was worth something.

Mael was really glad that he made the right decision about these two. His son would follow in his footsteps and Marianna would be his second man or in this case woman. They completed each other and they were stronger together than apart. It must have been destiny that brought Marianna to them that day. She made Rath stronger and work harder. And she showed him that love truly existed. What more could he want now?

"Damn. Broke a waterpipe again?", Mael, Rath and Marianna turned to the door. There stood Larek with a few more of the soldiers. Mael looked on his timer and swore. It was time for the training. Damn he forgot completely about the time. Immediately he prepared everything for the exercise.

Marianna meanwhile went, under watchful eyes, to Larek. " For your information that is a new look".

" I like it", Larek saw to Rath." On you". Then he turned back to Marianna. " How is your nose?".

" Good. I told you it would heal fast. Don´t worry anymore", Marianna made a devaluing gesture with her hand. Something like that happened all the time when you´re in an army. Besides he was beating like a girl.

" You know that it wasn´t my intention and I´m sorry?", Larek began to pout and looked at Marianna with sad eyes.

" Stop that", Marianna had to laught. Larek was such a goofball. How could she say no to this face. " You´re forgiven".

" That´s what I wanted to hear. I know that nobody can resist my charme", Larek wrapped his right arm around Mariannas shoulder.

" What charme? It was your funny face", with that Marianna moved to her already pissed partner, who was impatiently waiting for her.

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16 A trip to a new understanding**

Breakfast the next morning was really strange. Abidale and Queen Lutecia didn´t talk the whole time they were in the dining room. Zan and Ava weren´t openly flirting like usual and Vilandra seemed to had lost her good mood. King Salem and Mael were the only ones who behaved like they did normally. Rath and Marianna wondered what brought this change. Actually they hoped that everybody would congratulate them for their promotion. But they acted like someone had died. Therefore Marianna and Rath tried to eat as fast as possible so that they could escape the weird vibe they were getting. Thank god that they both didn´t have much appetite that morning, because they were too nervous. Just as they finished their meal and wanted to excuse themself from the table, Mael stopped them.

" We´re meeting at the gate. Wear comfortable clothes and shoes".

Rath and Marianna were a bit confused about the information, but nontheless they nodded and made their way to their bedrooms. Both deep in thoughts what they should expect from Mael and why was the feeling in the dining room so odd this morning. After they put on their work out clothes and comfortable shoes they walked the long way to the gate. People on their way bowed and greeted them friendly. Nothing unusual so far. Then they came to the gate. To their surprise the whole family stood there. Vilandra, Ava, Queen Lutecia, Abidale, Mael, Zan and King Salem.

" Ok. What´s up here", now Rath knew that this was not a normal exercise session. Something was fishy here.

Mael took a few steps forward till he stood before his son and Marianna. There he dropped two backpacks at their feets. " You´re both making a trip into the forest".

" What? Is this some kind of punishment?", Marianna was slightly shocked, which showed on her face. No No. That had to be a cruel joke.

Mael smiled despite the serious situation. " No that´s not a punishment", then a thought occured to him." Did you do something that needs punishment?".

" No. Of course not. I was only asking", Marianna was quick to respond. She didn´t do something. At least not at the moment. What happened in the future she didn´t know.

" Then why the backpacks and the trip in the forest?", Rath was curious and wary. He thought that this things were not here without a purpose.

" That´s your first lesson", Mael paced between Rath and Marianna. He had to do it or else they wouldn´t learn something." You´re both the best soldiers, there´s no doubt about it. But being a leader is not only about strength and powers. It means you have to trust the people you work with", Mael tried to find the right words to describe the situation so that Marianna and Rath would understand it." And I don´t see that with you two. You´re constantly bitching at each other. You have to learn to rely on your partner or else it could get really ugly real fast".

Rath tried to decipher what his father told them. " I still don´t understand the meaning of the backpacks?".

" I have a assigment for you both", Mael grabbed in his right pocket of his cape. After a few minutes of searching he pulled out a piece of paper. " Here is a map. We have hidden a treasure. You and Marianna have to find it. Together without help from others".

" That´s a joke", Marianna didn´t know if she was still dreaming or not. Did they lost their minds or what?

" No. In order to be a good leader you both have to learn to work with not against each other. I give you three days to find the treasure and bring it back home", Mael was sure that they could do it. And maybe they would get closer during this little adventure.

" And how will you know that we didn´t part on the way? I mean we could go our separate ways and this lesson would be fruitless", not that Rath would do something like that. Althrough three days alone with Marianna it was not so a bad idea.

" Don´t worry. We have our ways", Mael smiled knowingly. They had put sensors in their backpacks. If they would move more then a hundred feet from each other they would trigger a really loud alarm." So you should be on your way. You have only three days".

Marianna didn´t want to go. But she didn´t have a choice. With a heavy sight she took her backpack and put it on her back. Then she said goodbye to the others. Surprisingly all the females embraced her and wished her luck for the little journey. Rath did the same. Only a little more uncomfortable. After that they walked together in the direction of the forest. The whole family stood still at their places and looked after the two.

" Do you think we did the right thing", althrough Abidale was quiet the whole time, she did have her doubts.

" I´m completely sure", Mael wrapped his arms around his wife and pressed her to his body. " And if not, we have one child less to worry about".

" Mael!", Abidale slapped her husband pretty hard on his shoulder. How could he make jokes at a time like this. She was Raths mother and therefore was always worried about him. He was still her little boy.

Mael shook his head. He was worried, too. But he had complete trust in his son and Marianna to make it back save and sound. No matter what happened they would make it, there was no doubt. He only had to convince his wife about that. But like he knew her she would only stop worrying when Marianna and Rath were back at home. With that thought he made his way back in the palace. The others stopped looking after Rath and Marianna and followed him.

**Meanwhile near the forest**

Rath and Marianna, loaded with their backpacks and a treasure map, were quickly walking on the path which lead to the forest. Thank god it was morning and the suns didn´t shine that bright. Rath tried to read in the map which way they had to go. But he couldn´t regnorize a thing on this damn piece of paper. He should have be more careful in this class. His father told him that he had to learn it. But no he thought he would never need to read a map. F. He glanced at Marianna out of the corner of his eyes. Maybe she could read the piece of crap. No. What was he thinking. She would only laugh in his face and make fun of him the rest of his life. Ok. That option was out of the question. What should he do now?

" Are we on the right way?", Marianna faced Rath without breaking her step. He was looking at the map for a few minutes now. Hopefully he was better at reading it than her. That´s the only thing she didn´t understand. She couldn´t read a map and if her life depended on it.

Rath made a grunt that sounded like a yes. He didn´t want to lie to Marianna and he didn´t want to admit that he had no clue where they were going. For all he knew they could be on their way to another planet. Maybe he held the map wrong. Rath turned it around. Dammit. He still couldn´t read it.

" You have absolutely no clue where we going?", Marianna noticed it the moment he turned the map. He was as clueless as her when it came to maps. Great. They were probably going to die in these god forsaken forest.

Rath wanted to smack himself. Now he had to lie. " Yes I do", he held the map a little closer to his face and moved his forefinger along the drawn path, who would hopefully lead in the right direction. " I think we have to move north", he pointed with his hand ahead of him" and then walk until we come to a building".

" Are you sure about that?", Marianna wanted to laugh. First of all he held the map wrong, she knew that much, and secondly north was not in front of them but behind them and thirdly the building was the castle.

" If you don´t believe me then look for yourself", Rath pressed the map in Mariannas hand. See if she could do it better.

Marianna took the map and turned it the right way around. Then she tried to identify something. How hard could reading a map be? But everytime she thought she had found a way, she discovered that every path lead to a blind end. Dammit!

" Ha, you can´t read it either!", Rath pointed his finger at her. She was no better than him. If he wouldn´t be so mature he would start dancing and teasing her about it.

Marianna was glad that she was mature enough to admit her failures in contrast to Rath." Alright. I´ll admit that I can´t read it. But at least I know where North is. That´s in this direction", Marianna pointed behind her with her thumb." And the building you mentioned is the castle".

" Alright, Miss I-know-everything", if the situation wouldn´t be so serious Rath would be laughing. They weren´t even in the forest and they both were in the process of fighting again. " Then tell me what we should do now?".

" I think we have to move south", Marianna pointed ahead of them and then turned to Rath. She wanted to know what he would say about that.

Rath didn´t say anything. Instead he simply started walking in the direction Marianna was pointing at. They didn´t have much time to waste. Marianna stared suprised after him. That was strange. But then she remembered why she was here in the first place and followed Rath.

**3 hours later**

The suns were shining brighter now . It was really starting to get hot. Not even the trees could give them shelter from the heat. Marianna had pulled her shirt off and rolled up the legs of her pants. Her white tanktop was tied under her breasts and the sweat was tripping down everywhere on her body. Her hair was plastered against her face and from time to time a curse would fly from her mouth. Rath was no better. He was only clad in his pants and his shoes. His shirt was tied around his head to keep off the heat. The sweat glistened on his really great body. Marianna tried to not look. But she couldn´t help herself. She watched how a single bead of sweat fell down from his forhead to his chest and further down his abs until it dissapeared in his pants. How she wished she could be the bead of sweat. No stop it. Oh God the suns were getting to her. She had a sunstroke already.

" I think we should take a break", Rath was wasted and really hungry. He needed a little breather, before they went further. Besides it was too hot to walk.

Marianna, who was still arguing with herself because of her nasty thoughts earlier, didn´t hear what he was saying. " What".

" I said we should take a break. It´s really hot and I´m hungry".

" Yeah I agree", hopefully she could bring her thoughts under control while they were eating.

Rath held a hand over his heart mockingly. " Did I hear you right? You´re agreeing with me?".

" Yeah. Don´t get accustomed to it", Marianna smiled at him and then made her way under the biggest tree she could find. Maybe if she would come out of the sun she would remember that Rath was only a friend and not her sex object.

Rath watched how she went to a huge tree. Her butt moved nicely with her steps. Rath bend his head slightly to the side to see it more clearly. But to his dissapointment in that moment she turned around. Damn! With a quick curse he followed her.

Marianna breathed easier after she threw the backpack on the ground. Her shoulders felt really sore and uptight. She rolled her head from side to side to relieve some tension on her back. When she´ll come home the first thing she´ll do is to fall in her bed and sleep for a week or two. And nobody should dare to wake her.

" Finally I can take this damn thing off of my shoulders", Rath did the same like Marianna and threw the backpack on the ground. Then he took a seat beneath her. His feet were killing him. If he would be alone he would take his shoes off. A moan escaped him as he leaned his back against the tree behind him. Yeah that was perfect.

Marianna watched Rath how he relaxed at the trunk of the tree. He looked so peaceful with the smile on his face and his eyes closed. Like a little boy. She didn´t know that a man could look so beautiful. But now she knew better. A little smile broke out on her face.

" Why are you smiling?", Rath had his eyes only half closed. He was observing Marianna. She was different when she thought nobody was near. Then she was not so guarded. He liked it.

" I was just thinking about you", just as these words left Mariannas mouth, her eyes grew big and she clasped her hand over her mouth. Oh God. She did not just say that out loud. But the smug smile of Rath told her something different. Immediately she tried to cover up her slip." Hey, why don´t we check up what we have to eat? I´m really hungry now".

Rath noticed how Marianna tried to avoid his eyes. She pulled the backpack to her and opened it quickly. Then she rummaged in it, searching for food. Rath bend slightly forward and laid a hand on her arm. " Don´t be afraid".

" What? What are you talking about?", Marianna knew exactly what he meant, but she wanted to avoid this conversation.

Rath took Mariannas face in his hand and turned it in his direction. When he had this conversation he wanted to have eye contact at least. " Don´t be afraid of your feelings".

" I´m not afraid of my feelings", Marianna wanted to run in that moment. Rath said exactly what she felt. But she would never admit it to him. It was not easy to confess your fears, especially when you thought you couldn´t trust anybody.

" Oh yeah. Then explain to me why you never talk about them. I know you have feelings. Why are you hiding them?", Rath wouldn´t give up until he had his answers this time. Now they could finally talk about things without getting disturbed from other people. He knew that he could come behind her wall or at least knock a few stones out of it.

Marianna pushed Rath´s hand off of her face and arose from her position. Why couldn´t Rath simply let everything like it was? Why did he ask so much question she didn´t want to answer? She had to get away. Fast." I´m not having this conversation with you". With that she stormed deeper in the forest.

Rath couldn´t let her get away without his answers. Immediately he jumped to his feet and followed her quickly. " We´re not finished here. You can´t just run away from me"

" Watch me".

Rath knew that he wouldn´t get far with his tactic. She was more stubborn than him. And he didn´t think that was possible. He was now almost running to keep up with her. After a while he grasped her right arm and stopped her in the process. Marianna tried to release her arm and struggled against his hold.

" Stop that. You´re only hurting yourself", Rath pressed his hand tighter around her arm. It didn´t matter if she would get bruisings, she wouldn´t get away from him now. And if he ripped her arm off in the process.

" Please let me go. You´re hurting me", Marianna tried to hide her tears. She didn´t want Rath to see how vulnerable she really was. How broken she was inside. Everybody thought she was this tough girl but in reality she was only a scared little girl.

Rath heared how her voice broke while she spoke. He knew she was crying. But why didn´t she want him to see it? " I will let you go when you´re answering my questions".

" Why can´t you let it go? Why do you care?", Marianna didn´t have the strength to fight any longer. She was so sick of hiding and pretending.

Rath turned her around and pulled her close to his body. Then he lifted her chin with his forefinger and saw in her beautiful eyes, who were filled with tears. " Because I love you".

Marianna was speechless for a moment. Nobody ever said that to her. Ok Lykus had said it once, but that was during sex, so it doesn´t count. But Rath said it like he would really mean it. " No. You can´t love me".

" And why not?".

" Because it´s too dangerous", why couldn´t Rath understand it. Everything she loved was ripped from her. And she couldn´t bear it again. It would surely be her death this time. Her heart wouldn´t survive it.

" I don´t care about that", Rath wouldn´t let go because she thought it was too dangerous for him. He would fight everybody who wanted to break them apart. And if it would be the last he did. He never backed down from a challenge and he wouldn´t start now.

Marianna laid a hand on Rath´s cheek and caressed it with her thumb. " But I do. I couldn´t take it if something happened to you because of me".

Rath didn´t know what to say. He partially understood what she was saying. She was really scared. Scared of opening her heart for somebody who could be ripped from her again. But did she want to live her whole life without love? She was pretty young and a life could be really long. Did she want to die as a lonesomely old woman who didn´t live her life to the fullest? Love is strange and it hits you when you at least expect it. Life was not a straight way. Sometimes you will be thrown off way or you had to take a turn. But that was what made a life livable.

" We should go back. I´m starving", Marianna didn´t wait for a reply and walked back to the tree, where their backpacks were still lying.

Rath looked after her for a moment. A small smile playing on his face. She didn´t say it out loud, but in her own ways she told him that she loved him too. Now he only had to convince her to act on her feelings. Maybe tonight, when they were lying side to side at a nice campfire, the sky above them and the wonderful nature around them. With that thought he made his way to Marianna.

TBC


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17 A common ground**

After a defty lunch, consisting of gruggles with endig and marquise ( PJ sandwich), a little time to regenerate their strength and a long discussion about which way they had to go, Marianna and Rath shouldered their backpacks and continued their hike. They knew that they had still a long way to go and it would be getting dark soon. So they marched quietly side by side the seemingly never ending path. The only sound they heared was the trampling of their feet and every now and then a clapping, because of the annoyingly buzzing haibz ( mosquitos). Thankfully the suns were not shining so brightly, which meant that they wouldn´t get crushed by the heat anymore. Marianna however didn´t notice it. She was too occupied with observing the surroundings around her. It seemed that on this side of the planet the plants would grow bigger and brighter than on the side she grew up. It was strange that she never saw how dark and dead everything was. Maybe it was because she didn´t know it better. She only knew it like that. Or she didn´t want to see it? Her mother would have surely liked it here. It was like walking in another world, where everything was animated and so full of surprises. Marianna tried to repress her tears. It was still painful to think about her mother and the missing opportunities. Maybe if she would have been earlier, or if she noticed before that something wasn´t right, or she regnorized that her father was not the man she imagined. Marianna shook her head. She couldn´t dwell on things she couldn´t change anymore. She had a new life now. A life full of people who cared about her. At that part she faced Rath. He seemed to be in thoughts, too. He was staring straight ahead. He looked really funny with his shirt around his head. She still couldn´t believe it that he confessed his love to her. And she could see in his eyes that he really meant it. For a moment she was tempted to tell him the same. But then her mind screamed that she shouldn´t do it. She only would get him in danger if she told him her true feelings. Maybe someday she would be brave enough to admit her feelings for him. Marianna turned her head and watched the wonder of the nature again. Meanwhile Rath was thinking about ways to convince Marianna to overcome her fear. He knew it would be hard and take time. But it would be worth it. Marianna was worth it. He never met a girl like her and he never fell in love so quickly. Ok he never fell in love peroid, but that was not the point. He knew her exactly a few weeks and he couldn´t imagine a life without her. How whacked was that? At first he thought he was feeling sorry for her, but after awhile he notized that his feelings went deeper. He never was so attracted and annoyed at the same time by a girl. She was everything he never knew he wanted. The girls he made out with were all different. They were barely talked and giggled a lot. Ok he could admit that they were all airheads. Marianna however was the opposite. She was not afraid to stand up to him or to tell him that he was wrong. And she made his life a little brighter. Strange that you never know what´s missing in your life until you see it. Rath turned his head in Mariannas direction. She was watching her surroundings like she would see something like that for the first time in her life. It was so sweet to look at. Suddenly he was thrown out of his thoughts.

" Hey look. A zwiddle ( a mix between a deer and a hedge hog)", Marianna went slowly to it. She wanted to stroke its face. She never saw a real zwiddle from such a close proximity. Careful she stretched her arm out and tried to stroke the snout. But in that moment the zwiddle thought it was in danger and bit in her finger. Immediately Marianna pulled her hand back and let out a scream of pain.

In an instant Rath was by her side and took her hand. He wanted to see the damage. Thankfully the zwiddle had no sharp teeths, because he was a herbivore and the wound didn´t look too bad. Rath tried everything to hide his smile. " Are you alright?".

" Yeah", Marianna sent a glare at the beast. They should come with a warning. Don´t stroke or your fingers are gone, or something like that. " I was only startled for a moment".

Rath finally lost the battle against his face muscles. He really tried to not laugh. But he couldn´t hold it in any longer. Marianna was startled when Rath broke out in laughter. He was laughing so hard, that he had tears running down his face and his whole body shook.

Marianna couldn´t believe it. How dare he laugh at her. " How can you laugh? This thing almost took my arm off!".

" I´m sorry. But your face", Rath tried to take deep breaths. But then he saw Mariannas pissed off face and he started to laugh again.

" I´m glad my pain is so amusing to you", Marianna really wanted to be mad at Rath. But after she thought about the whole situation and how it had to be looking to him, she had to laugh, too. Besides Rath looked to funny when he was laughing.

For about 5 minutes they stood like in the forest with their body bend and their hands holding their bellies. It was quite a picture. For the first time since they knew each other they did something together. Even if it was something like laughing over a slightly hurt finger.

" I think we have to move on. It´s getting dark", Marianna wiped the tears from her face. Thank god that she didn´t wear make up or else she would look really awful right now.

Rath saw to the sky above. She was right. It was getting dark. The suns were in the process to disappear. They didn´t have too much time to waste. But it was nice. Now he knew that Marianna had more expression, besides her angry and her annoyed face. And she had the most beautiful laugh he ever heared." Yeah. You´re right".

" Did I hear you correct. You´re agreeing with me? Be still my beating heart", Marianna couldn´t resist the pun. She could play this game, too.

" Yeah. Yeah. You´re really funny", why did Rath knew that she would say something like that. She always had to have the last say in the matter. Why couldn´t he feel more for Vilandra. In contrast to Marianna she was at least quiet. " Now let´s go!".

" Yes sir!", Marianna stood at attention and saluted. Then she marched in step away.

Rath only shook his head. What was his father thinking. Sending him away with her. She was so damn frustrating and sweet at once. And why did he like it so much. Maybe he was sick. Yeah that was the explanation and he would stick with it until his dying day.

**An hour later**

Rath and Marianna finally found the right spot where they could camp for the night. The place was really nice and pretty deserted. Nearby they could hear a little brook quietly burble. There were not so much trees who could cloud the view at the sky. And in the middle was something that looked like a fireplace. While Marianna checked the backpacks for a tent or something they could sleep in Rath made a little trip for firewood. Althrough the heat was almost unbearable by day the nights on Antar where really cold. And it scared the creatures away who came out of their hiding place at night. He didn´t want to get eaten alive while he slept. Or Marianna. After Rath found enough wood to start a fire he went back to Marianna. She in the meantime had made their sleeping place a little cosier. They didn´t have a tent, but two sleeping bags, which Marianna spread out next to each other. Their backpacks where lying beside it.

" No tent?", Rath asked a little surprised.

Marianna shook her head. If they had a tent she would have set it while Rath was away. " No tent. We have to sleep outdoors". At the last part she grimaced.

" What´s up? You don´t look too happy about that", Rath didn´t understand that. Only they both, the starry night above them and two cosy little sleeping bags seperating them. It was the most romantic thing he could imagine.

" It´s nothing", Marianna didn´t want to admit that she hated sleeping in the nature. All this little creatures with their many hairy legs, who waited until you sleep before they crawled over your face. Marianna started to scratch her body at this thought.

" Alright. If you think so", Rath placed the twigs on the fireplace. Then he put his hand over them. Within a few seconds his hand started glowing green and the twigs started to burn. For a moment he held his hands over the fire to warm them. It was slowly getting colder now.

Marianna noticed the change in the temperature, too. Therefore she went to her backpack and fetched the jacket she saw while she searched for something they could sleep in. After she put it on she joined Rath by the fireplace. He was searching for some food in his backpack. And judging from his little outburst of joy he seemed to have find something. With a grin on his face he pulled a can of klieht (antarian name for Ravioli) out of the backpack. Then out of the blue he threw the can at Marianna, who catched it in the nick of time. Luckily for her or else it could have been really painful.

" Why are you giving me the can?", if Rath thought she would cook he was mistaken. Ok it was not that difficult to heat a can of food, but it was about the principle. He couldn´t just expect her to cook because she was a girl.

Rath looked at her funny. Did she really ask this question?" You´re cooking".

" And why is that?", Marianna glared for a few seconds at him. He was such a guy." Because I´m a girl. And you think because of that I should do the cooking. But not with me, you chauvinistic pig".

Rath stared open mouthed at Marianna. Now he knew that she really was crazy. Why did she make such a fuss about something simple like who cooks? He didn´t think for a moment that she should cook because she was a girl. " You´re nuts, you know that? I only thought you should do the cooking because I brought the firewood. In our world there is something called work arrangement. Both parties split the work in equal parts. But I´m sorry. I´ll try to never do that again".

Marianna blushed in embarrassment. She really put her feet in her mouth this time. " I´m sorry. I didn´t mean that. I´m just hungy, tired and cold. Don´t listen to the things I say".

" It´s alright. I think we both are pretty on the edge right now", Rath noticed that the trek finally caught up with them. They were cranky and took it out on each other. Maybe if they ate something they would be more relaxed.

As if on cue Marianna put the can on the burning fire. Then she searched for flatware in her backpack. After a few seconds she found two forks. When she came back to the castle she would thank Abidale at first. Because she was probably the reason that they had food and flatware. Mael would let them hunt their dinner, expect them to slaughter it and eat it with their finger. Ewwwww. One more reason to hate the whole camping thing even more. Marianna shook her head to get rid of her disturbing thoughts after all she still wanted to eat something. Then she gave Rath one of the forks. They waited until the sauce started to bubble. After that they shared the can with each other like a old married couple. The whole time nobody spoke a word. They only sat side by side and enjoyed their little meal. It was strange that two people who couldn´t be in the proximity of the other without starting a fight could be so quiet. It was a really comfortable silence. The only noise was the spit of the fire and the normal sound of the nature around them. The suns were long gone and dived everything in darkness when they finished their dinner.

Immediately Rath layed down on his sleeping bag and saw to the sky above and the million stars that shone bright down on them. " Do you believe that there are living organism out there on another planet?".

" Yes. I mean it´s pretty naive to think we´re the only one in this universum", Marianna had thought much about that the last few weeks. Maybe on another planet a other her lived peacefully with her mother or her father was changed and loved his family there? Everything was impossible. At least she had to believe it.

" My father told me that a few of the scientist found a planet, who isn´t that different from Antar. They think they found a proof of life there. They called the planet earth or something like that".

Marianna slowly snuggled in her sleeping bag. She really was tired now. " Do they know more about the planet?".

" No. But some mens are on their way to it. They want to check the atmosphere and the living conditions. Maybe they´ll find something interesting"

Marianna only half listed to Rath. Her eyes were almost closed and her body was in the process to let sleep overtake her. " Hopefully some really great looking men".

Rath turned around and faced Marianna to glare at her. But to his dissapointment she was already sleeping. How can someone sleep so fast? She was just speaking with him. Then he watched her. Her face looked so peacefully, like a sleeping child. Rath wanted to stroke her flawless face, but he knew that he shouldn´t do it. She would probably break his wrist if he tried it. Therefore he decided to observe her and memorize her beautiful feature in his brain for a time when he couldn´t see her. But after a while sleep overtook him, too and he closed his eyes. Hopefully he would dream about Marianna again.

TBC


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18 Overcoming fear and moving on**

Marianna was the first one to wake up the next morning. That was probably because a sunbeam fell exactly on her face. Reluctantly she opened her eyes and closed them immediately. Oh it was too bright for her eyes. Slowly she tried to open them again and this time she made it. At first she felt a little confused, because she saw no walls or windows around her. But then she remembered that she was sent on a mission in the damn nature. Carefully she rose up with her torso and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. Then she yawned really loudly without hiding it behind her hand. She knew that it was not Lady like, but for one she was alone at the moment and two she didn´t care about such thing as manners. While she stretched out her arms, she observed the surroundings. Last night was too dark and she was too tired to notice where she was. But now in the bright daylight the place they choose was really nice. They had a clear view on the sky above and there were not so much trees around. And she heared something dabble nearby. Which meant she could wash herself or take a swim before they went along. Suddenly a big snore brought her out of her thoughts. Immediatley she turned to her right and looked at her companion. Rath was lying on his back. One arm was thrown over his head and the other was on his belly. His mouth was wide open and a little drool was trickling down his cheek. And Marianna found that picture really sweet. He looked so at ease, like nothing could happen when he slept. Usually he wore his mean face, except when he thought nobody was looking or he watched his family. But now that was gone. There was only that peacefulness. Marianna was tempted to touch his face and feel the slight stubbles on his unshaved cheeks. But she didn´t do it, however tempting it was. Besides she had a necessity to do. Nature called and she better listened. Without making to much noise, Marianna peeled herself out of her sleeping bag and went hunting for a nice place to relieve herself. After that she made a little trip to the little lake to wash herself. When she saw her reflection in the water she was on the brink to scream. Her hair looked like a storm had been blowing. Thank god for her powers. Within a few minutes she looked like a girl again. And the cold water did wake her up fully now. But now she had a other problem. She was really hungry and her stomach demanded food. So she went back to Rath, who was probably still snoring loudly to himself. And when she arrived at their bivouac she saw that she was right with her assumption. Silently she sneaked up on him and kneeled beside him.

" Rath. Wake up", Marianna slightly shook Rath. Hopefully he wasn´t like her when it came to waking him up. She was cranky and it could happen that she would blast someone away.

But Rath only turned to the other side and continued sleeping. That lazybone! How could he sleep so deep. They were freaking outdoors with no protection. If they would be attacked Rath would probably sleep soundlessly through it. But Marianna had still some tricks up her sleeve. She would wake Rath sooner or later.

Marianna bend slowly forward until her mouth was at his ear. Then she used her sultry voice. " Rath baby. You have to help me. I got my clothes all dirty and now I don´t have any clothes to wear".

The only response she got was a really loud fart. Immediately Marianna jumped to her feet. That dirty bastard! How dare he to fart at her. She was tempted to kick his butt for it. But she could controll herself in time. Besides she already had a new idea in her head. With a smile she went to her backpack and searched for a container. To her dissapointment her luck ran out and the only thing she found was a little waterbottle. But beggers can´t be choosers. So she made her way down to the lake with the bottle. There she filled it with enough water to fullfill her evil plan. On her way back to Rath she used her powers to build pressure inside the bottle. When she finally arrived at the sleeping place of her companion she took of the cap and splashed to whole content on him.

Rath immediately woke up and jumped up from his place. " What the hell!".

" Good morning. Did you sleep well", if Rath didn´t know Marianna better or they weren´t the only ones here he would believe her innocent appearance. But because it was not the case he knew she was behind the water attack.

" Why did you have to do that?", Rath could imagine better ways to be woken up. However getting wet was not one of them. Desperate he tried to try his soaking clothes. Unfortunaly his body was not yet fully awake and his powers weren´t active.

" I had to wake you somehow".

Rath couldn´t believe it. " You could have tried another way".

" I did and it didn´t work", Marianna really enjoyed the picture of Rath all wet and pissed. He was just to damn funny. She wanted to laugh so badly that her complete body shook. She knew that she couldn´t hold her laughter any longer.

Rath was close to laughing himself. Marianna looked too cute for words. Her face was slightly red with her preventing to laugh and everything. He wasn´t mad at her for splashing him. Ok maybe he was at first, but now he found it just funny. But that didn´t mean that she wouldn´t be punished for her attack.

Marianna got a funny feeling when Rath watched at her really strange. A little smirk graced his face and he looked like he wanted to attack her any moment now. " Don´t you dare do something stupid. I´m warning you".

Rath didn´t intend to do something stupid. " You´re warning me? I´m shaking in my boots".

Marianna wanted to throw him a nasty remark, when Rath raced in her direction. Immediately she ran the other way. Over and over again she screamed at him that he should stop that. But Rath didn´t listen. He chased after her. Thankfully he had the longer legs and he catched her within a few minutes. He grasped her and threw her over his shoulder.

" Rath! Put me down!", Marianna was trashing with her whole body. He coudn´t do that to her. Althrough the view was really nice. She had his trained butt infront of her face. And if she was already so close to it she could do something she wanted to do for a while now. She pinched it.

Rath jumped a little. He didn´t expect her to pinch his ass. But it felt nice. " Stop that. Or I´ll drop you".

" I didn´t do anything", it was not like she hurt him. He should be flattered that she found his butt so irresistible. There were not so many girls out there who would do the same. " Where are you dragging me anyway?".

" Wait and see", and because he couldn´t help himself he slapped her ass really hard. If she could do it, so did he.

" Ouch. That hurt", Marianna only pinched, she didn´t slap. Now she would have his handprint for the rest of the day on her cheek. If he could see her now, she would be pouting like a little girl.

" That was for the rudely wake up call", Rath stopped his walk and then he threw Marianna with all his might in the little lake. He was glad that it was deep enough that she couldn´t hurt herself." And that´s for the water attack".

Marianna fell ass first in the water. After the shock was dissapearing and she could stand in the brook, she started to swear fast in Antarian. Even Rath had problems understanding the things she said. But he got the main thing. She cursed the day he was born and she called him names that turned his ears red. Damn some of the words he hadn´t even heared. But it was funny to see how Marianna bashed her fist in the water and everytime she did that drops would splash around her. He knew he shouldn´t do it, but he had to laugh. However that made Marianna swear some more.

" Don´t laugh at me!", she pointed with her finger at him. She found that not funny. She was wet and her clothers were glued to her body. If Marianna would come out of the water, Rath could see her breast through her shirt.

" I´m sorry. But you look so unbelievable cute at the moment".

"Cute! Cute!I´ll show you cute!", with that Marianna concentrated on the structure of the water and then she nudged it in Rath´s direction. Within seconds a huge fontain shot out of the lake and gushed over Rath. Now he was as wet as her.

Rath couldn´t believe that she did that. For like a few seconds he stood there with his mouth wide open and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. His hair was glued to his face and the same applied to his clothes. And Marianna didn´t have something better to do as to laugh at him. " You will pay for that".

" I´m terrified", replied Marianna sarcastic. What could he do to her? Make her even wetter? That was impossible.

Rath pulled his tank top over his head and threw it on the ground beneath his feet. " You should be", and then he jumped with his feet angled at his body in the lake. Water was splashing everywhere and Marianna was almost drowned by a wave, which washed over her head.

Just as she surfaced from the water, she saw that Rath was right infront of her. He smirked at her and she didn´t like it. Before she knew what he wanted to do, he laid his hands on her shoulders and pushed her under the water. Marianna didn´t want to lose this fight. She grasped Rath´s legs and pulled him down with her. After that it was a water fight, which nobody wanted to lose. They behaved like little children on a hot summer day. It was quite a sight. If somebody would have seen them, they wouldn´t have guessed that these two were the best soldiers of the kingdom. Marianna was never so happy and so carefree like in that moment. Rath enjoyed it, too. In all his years in which he had contact with the other gender, he didn´t have so much fun ever. And it was a beautiful sight seeing Marianna so cheerful and her laughter seemed to float over the whole planet. Rath could have watched her like this everyday of his life. Sometime later they were really wasted and decided to go back to the shore to let them relax a little bit. And get their clothings dry. Marianna was the first who slumped on the ground just a few feets away from the lake. A little while later Rath followed her and laid himself besides her.

" That was fun", Marianna felt young and really happy for the first time in her life. She couldn´t remember a time when she let her guard down with someone other than her mother. It felt really great to let go from her problems for a while and just be herself.

Rath couldn´t get the smile out of his face, even if he wanted. He saw his first glimpse of the person Marianna really was under her stonewall." Yeah it was". And he didn´t mind if they would do something like that more often. " Althrough you were no opponent for me".

Marianna snorted at that. " Yeah. That´s what I let you believe". She knew Rath´s ego by now and she didn´t want to hurt it in any way. He was like every male on this and probably on another planet. They were so sensitive if they lost against in their eyes the weaker sex. " If I wanted I could have taken you down".

Rath propped his torso on his elbows and faced Marianna. " Is that a Challenge?".

" Maybe another time. We have still something to do", Marianna would love to take Rath down. But they were not here on vacation. They still had a mission to fullfill. And she didn´t want to dissapoint Mael. " Now get your big ass in gear". With that Marianna jumped to her feet and walked to their sleepingbags.

Rath got up from the ground insulted. He tried to turn his body that he could see his backside. But he wasn´t that flexible. " I don´t have a big ass. Maybe hairy, but not big".

Marianna looked back at her companion. He was trying to see his butt. But it didn´t work. Then he seemed to grumble something to himself, but she was too far away to hear what he said. She had to laugh about the picture. He behaved like a girl. Ok he had no big ass, but he was at least on his feet. With that thought in mind she waved her hands over her body until everything was dry again. After that she started to clear the camping side.

When Rath arrived by Marianna she was dry and in the process to put their sleepingbags in their backpacks. Either she was very quick or he wasted more time with praising his trained butt than he thought. So without a word he followed her example and helped to put everything away and destroy all evidence that someone was there. That was one of the first rule his father taught him. Clean your own shit and try to be one step ahead of your enemy. Strange that he remembered everything his father told him now and when his father asked him he didn´t know it.

" Are you ready to go?", Marianna jolted him out of his thoughts. She was finished with her backpack and was carrying it already on her shoulders.

Rath saw to her and then to his backpack, which was lying at his feet, fully packed and closed. " Yeah, we can go".

So they both resumed their trek, althrough neither of them knew which way to go. But they agreed that they should stay on the path as long as it was there. After all it had to have a reason to be there in the first place. Rath took the map and put it in his pant pocket. Just in case they needed it quickly at hand. Marianna smiled at that. Even if they tried to use the map they wouldn´t get far with it, because neither of them could understand a thing that was written there. They only could trust their instincts now and both hoped that they would find their way to this treasure and back again. They walked in a comfortable silence side by side and for the first time they had a feeling that their friendship reached a level where they could be open with each other. Marianna wasn´t afraid to show her feelings anymore and Rath finally saw behind Mariannas wall, even if it was only for a while. But he knew that he knocked a few stones out of it and he would do it as long until the last stone was gone. Sometime later Rath was the first who broke the silence between them. He wanted to know more about her life, before she came to their castle. He hoped that she didn´t avoid the topic or refused to speak about it. To his surprise she started to tell him some things about herself. Beginning with her 8 Birthday where she wanted to have a turquoise refty ( a pony with wings) and her mother gave her a beautiful pink dress. Althrough she was a girl and should have been happy about it, she was dissapointed and never wore it. When she was thirteen she wanted to do something nice for her mother and tried for her sake, to be more like a girl. She even had lessons in which she learned how a princess had to behave. But the teacher was speechless when she saw that Marianna wore boots under her dress. And the way she ate was not "proper for a princess". Just because she didn´t cut her meal in tiny bits and chewed with her mouth wide open. Sometime later the teacher gave up and declared her a "hopeless case". Thank god that her mother never expected her to do that again. With fourteen she started to train with the soldiers. Althrough Hewik, the leading commander of the army, didn´t think she was capable of defending herself, he let her train with his men. Then he saw what power she possessed and started to give her private lessons. He was technically the first male who treated her nice. She was something like his daughter. He was sterner with her and demanded more of her than any other men, but he believed in her. She would never forget the scene where one of the soldier tried to hit on her and she blasted him into the nearest wall. Hewik came immediately and looked what happened. When he saw that she wasn´t hurt in any kind he clapped on her shoulder and said that he was proud of the woman she was becoming. It was the first time that somebody appreciated what she did and showed her that she was good in something. Even her jealous brother seemed to be proud of her. He didn´t say anything, but his eyes weren´t looking so icecold at her anymore. At this point Marianna stopped talking. The thing with her brother was still bothering her. Even after the long time she had to think, she couldn´t find a reason why he helped her escape. Most people would think that it was because they were siblings. But not in her family. She and her brother weren´t that close like she saw with Rath and Ava or Vilandra and Zan. They were more like rivals. Marianna wanted the undivided attention of her father which her brother had and he wanted to be the best soldier in the army which Marianna was. Suddenly she was ripped out of her thoughts, because she noticed that Rath stopped walking beside her.

" We have a slight problem now", Rath pointed infront of them. There was a parting of ways. One path led right and the other left.

Marianna eyed both ways. Which was the right one? And where did they lead to? Marianna faced Rath. " What do we do now?".

" I think we can rule out the map, because neither of us can read it", Rath sighed loud while he scratched nervously his right eyebrow. There had to be a way to know for sure which way they had to go.

" The only suggestion I have is that we seperate and go different paths".

" No! My father told us to go together and we stick to that", besides he wanted to keep Marianna in sight. She was a trouble magnet and he wouldn´t let her leave his side because of that.

Marianna was startled, because Rath reacted so strongly about her suggestion. It was only a thought. Geez what was up with him now? " Alright. Then tell me Oh great one, what do you have in mind?".

Rath turned to the girl beside him. She really was a royal pain in the ass. But he liked it when she called him names, because she only did it with him and that meant something. " We choose a path"

" That´s your plan?", Marianna threw him an angry glare. Was he for real? Did he think that it was that simple? They couldn´t even agree on ordinary things and then they should choose a way? Great, they would be here for a while. Maybe she should look for a place to sleep.

" Yeah. Do you have a problem with it?", why couldn´t Marianna simply be on his side for once? Everytime he said something she had to say the opposite. Damn women!

" Actually yes" and even if she wouldn´t have a problem with it she would still say the same, just to see Rath with his pissed of look. He was so sexy when he got mad. His eyes changed to a darker colour and his aura screamed dangerous. It was a total turn on. " If we take the wrong path we´re losing valid time, which we can´t right now".

Rath thought about that. She was absolutely right. Even if he wouldn´t say that out loud, especially to her. She only would tease him with it. But what could they do then? Just as he tried to thought about another plan, Marianna started walking to the right path. " What are you doing?".

" I´m saving time", what did it look like she was doing? " I´m going that way while you take the other way".

Rath opened his mouth to disagree. But something in her eyes told him that he should shut his mouth and do what she said. Besides it was the only way they could abide to the time his father gave them. So without saying anything he took the left path.

Marianna tried everything to hide her smile. She knew that Rath wanted to voice his objections, but he didn´t. Finally he realized that her suggestion was the best one. Suddenly a really loud sound startled her. Shocked she tried to see where the noise was coming from. But there was nothing, besides trees, bushes and other greens. Then she noticed that the sound was coming from her backpack. Immediately she threw it on the ground, just in case that it was something that could explode any minute. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw that Rath was coming her way.

" Stay back. I think my backpack will blow up", Marianna went to a safe distant. She was rather safe than sorry. Rath meanwhile did the opposite. He walked straight to her backpack.

" Don´t worry", Rath knew what was up and why their backpacks made such a noise." My father put sensors in our backpacks, who give alarm when they´re too far away from each other" Just as he said that the noise stopped suddenly.

Marianna breathed out relieved. The alarm was really annoying and she would propably still hear it when she slept. She put her middle finger in her ear and wiggled it. " I think the noise cracked my eardrum".

" I can make it better", Rath wiggled his eyebrow seductively while he tried to stiffle his laughter. He only wanted to check if Marianna heared it. Judging after the face she made her sense of hearing was still intact.

Marianna went to her backpack, took it off the ground and strapped it on her shoulders again. Then she turned to Rath and smiled at him. " I quite believe that".

" What are we doing now? Going seperately is out of the question", Rath stepped closer to Marianna, out of fear that the damn alarm would go off again.

" You decide. I´m doing whatever you say", Marianna just wanted to find the bloody treasure and go back in the castle. She missed her bed and the food there.

Rath faced his companion. Did she really mean that? He knew what he wanted her to do to him. And it had nothing to do with choosing which way they were going. " Really".

" Yeah really", Marianna didn´t immediately realize what she had implied and how Rath understood it. But then she noticed the big smile on his face and she finally put two and two together. " Get your mind out off the gutter, soldier boy. I meant which way we´re going".

" Damn", upps did he said that just loud? Ok he should concentrate on the task at hand. He could dream about Marianna, who danced for him without any scrap of clothes on her body, later. " Alright. If we´re both already on this way, we should continue it".

Marianna stretched out her right arm and bowed. " Lead the way, commander".

Rath shook his head laughing. That girl was so damn unpredictable that he never knew what he should expect from her. Sometimes she was bitchy, then she was funny and other times she was so closed off. But one thing was for sure. Life with her was never boring. So with that Rath started walking. Marianna close behind him. Both were paying attention that they weren´t too far away from each other. They wanted to prevent that everybody in a hundred mile radius could hear them.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19 A weird treasure and a extremly hot night**

The path they choose to walk on turned out to be the most scary they ever stepped foot on. Althrough it was bright daylight it was getting darker and colder the farther they went into it. The plants seemed to be more creepy, the trees looked like they were living and they could hear strange, eerie noises. Rath and Marianna observed the surroundings with each step they took. They didn´t want to be surprised from something dangerous or deadly. When they were really deep in the forest, Rath couldn´t stand the silence any longer. He decided to do it like Marianna and share some of his life with her. If she could be open with him, so could he. So he told her his best pranks he ever played on someone. Like when he hid a few harlegmos (spiders) in Vilandra´s bedroom. He still had to laugh about the loud scream and her horrofied expression when she ran through the halls in the castle. Too bad that someone saw him and he was punished from his father. For two weeks he had to dust the old books in the library. Althrough it was not so bad to do it. After all he discovered his interest for some of the history books there. For hours he would sat on the old couch in the corner and read through them. He still did it after his punishment was over and nobody was in sight. He didn´t want someone to know that he had a passion for reading. Furthermore it was something that he wanted to do alone, like a little vacation from all his responsiblities and his family. Marianna could relate to it. She had something like that. She didn´t read a book, but she sang when she was sure that nobody was near. It was a escape from the dark vibes that were always floating through the rooms at the castle. It was the only time she could really be herself and let her guard down for a few hours. Rath just wanted to tell Marianna how he almost destroyed the whole palace at his tenth birthday, when he noticed that something had changed around them. He turned his head and watched Marianna, who seemed to have noticed it also, because she was facing him, too. They both turned to the path at the same time. Then they saw it. The path was at its end and a sunbeam fell through a little opening. Immediately they ran as fast as they could to it. Never in their life they were so relieved to see the suns again and feel the heat on their bodies. Rath kneeled on the ground and started to pray while he lifted his arms. Marianna only watched him with a smile on her face. Sometimes she wondered about his sanity and how he made it to so far in his life. Althrough she was happy that they made it out of the scary wood she didn´t make a show about it like her companion. While he was still kneeling on the ground infront of her feet, Marianna took the time to observe the scenery around them. They seemed to be near the sea, because it were almost no trees there. And despite the heat from the suns a light breeze was blowing. Then she turned her head to her right and discovered something that she apparently had overlooked the first time. A little cabin was standing on a little clearing. It looked really old. The grey paint was slowly coming off, a few roof tiles were missing and there were absolutly no windows anymore. The cabin was obviously not used for a few decades.

" Hey Rath. Whose the owner of this thing", Marianna pointed to the cabin. Rath had to know more about it. At least he grew up here and knew more people than her.

Rath paused in his praisings and starred at the place Marianna was pointing at. He had absolutely no clue who would want to live there. He couldn´t remember ever seeing this cabin before. Ok he wasn´t that deep in the forest before, hence he couldn´t have seen it. " Don´t know".

" Do you think we should maybe check it out?", Marianna hoped not. She could imagine how much little crawling creatures where living in this dump. For the second time a shudder went through her body. Everything with no feet or more than four was scaring her.

Rath arose from his position on the ground and faced Marianna. " What´s up? Are you scared of a little cabin?".

" Not of the cabin, but the things that could be inside".

" What do you think is in there?", Rath couldn´t imagine that something dangerous could be in the little cottage. " I think the only thing living there will be harlegmos", he noticed that Marianna made a face at that. " Don´t tell me you´re scared of harlegmos?".

Marianna couldn´t understand why Rath was smiling. Many people were scared of insects. " I´m not scared. I just don´t like them".

Rath was really enjoying that. Finally he found out that Marianna wasn´t that perfect. She had flaws like everybody else. And that made her more attractive as she already was anyway. " Don´t worry princess. I´ll protect you".

" I don´t need anybody to protect me", Marianna knew she should have shut her mouth and keep that secret to herself. Now Rath thought she was a little princess who needed somebody to look out for her. But not with her. With a glare she headed straight to the cabin and let him standing behind.

Rath smiled after her. His plan worked just fine. He knew how much Marianna hated to be treated like a little girl and that she would overcome her fear just to show that she could hold her own. One of the many reason why he was so attracted to her. When Rath saw that Marianna was almost by the cabin he finally followed her.

Marianna was slightly faltering in her steps the closer she got to the cottage. Maybe she shouldn´t have said anything. Now she had to swallow her fear and go in there. She could imagine what sight she would see. The dust was propably already so high that somebody could write something in it, harlegmo webs everywhere and a smell that would blow away the strongest man on this planet. Just as she wanted to put her feet on the first stair, an image of a huge harlegmo popped in her head. It had eight, long, hairy legs, many little eyes, which were all directed on her and a body that was as big as the cottage itself. Marianna tried to banish the picture in her head, but the fear had embraced her in a tight grip. She was frozen to the spot and didn´t dare to move any muscle.

" Hey. Is everything alright with you?", Rath was a tad bit worried about her condition. For a minute now she was just standing there. Her face was white and her eyes seemed to be starring through something. Until he laid a hand on her arm.

Immediately her stiffness dissapeared and she turned her head to Rath. " You were right. I´m absolutely terrified of harlegmos". Now it was out. She observed his reaction at this revelation. But instead of laughter, like she expected the only thing she got was understanding.

" It´s alright. Everybody has some fears".

Marianna faced the cabin again. Why couldn´t she simply go inside and took a look around? She survived worse and she was still there. No she wouldn´t let her fear overtake her. She escaped her fathers army and then a little cottage shouldn´t be a problem at all. Besides this time she wasn´t alone anymore. She still had Rath at her side. " Ok let´s get inside"

" That´s what I wanted to hear", Rath gave her arm a reassuring squeeze, before he realesed it.

Marianna took a really deep breath, all her courage and stepped on the first stair. The fear was slowly ebbing away and at its place was just this calmness. Not even the scary noise of the stair could frighten her now. But just as she arrived at the last stair the door to the cabin flew open. Shocked Marianna let out a piercing scream and tried to take a step back. However she missed the stair and she fell backwards directly on Rath. Together they both crashed to the ground.

" Finally you´re there. I already thought you weren´t coming at all", Larek stepped out of the cabin ready to take his frustation for waiting so long out on Marianna and Rath. Didn´t they know that it was rude to let someone wait that long. Then he noticed that they were laying on the ground. Marianna right on top of Rath. " What are you doing down there?".

Marianna rolled off of Rath and checked if he was hurt in any kind. After she was sure that nothing was broken or injured she faced Larek with a glare. " What are we doing? What are you doing here scaring the shit out of me?".

" I was told to wait here for you", what was her problem? He should be pissed for sitting in his filthy dump for hours. Not the other way around.

Rath stood up from the ground and helped Marianna back on her feet. He was glad that she had kept her knees in the other direction or he could have said goodbye to his future children. " I´m assuming you´re here to give us the treasure?".

" That, my friend is correct", Larek excused himfelf for a moment and went in the cottage. A few seconds he came back with something that looked like a book in his hand. " That´s the treasure"

Marianna and Rath both stepped forward to take a closer look it at. It really was a book. It seemed to be pretty old, because the brown cover was slightly worn. There was a strange symbol in the middle. Instinctively they both stretched their arms out and touched it. Immediately a white light shot up and illuminated the entire area around them. Marianna and Rath felt that the book regnorized them as their keeper. After a few more seconds the light dissapeared as fast as it came. Now the book looked like it did before again.

" Holy Shit! What was that?", Larek had never seen something like that. He thought he witnessed every strange thing by now, but now he knew that he had still more to see.

Marianna ignored him and turned to Rath with a frown covering her face. " Did you feel it, too?".

" Yeah. What do you think it means?".

Marianna shrugged her shoulders. She was as clueless as Rath. But the feeling was incredible. She never felt something so warm and beautiful in her life. She saw the same thought reflecting in Rath´s eyes. He was equally moved from the emotions that were coming from that light.

" Hey! I asked you something!", Larek waggled with his arms to get the attention from at least one of the both. They seemed to be in a conversation without speaking with each other. It was strange to look at. Yeah there was nothing between them my ass. No matter what they both said, they had a deep connection.

Now Rath and Marianna both faced Larek at the same time. It was like they just noticed that Larek was still there. The spell that connected them was instantly broken. Marianna was the first to recover from it. " Did you say something?".

" Actually yes. But you both were to busy to stare at each other to listen to me", Larek was at the end of his patience. At first they let him wait for hours in a cottage that was the collecting point for all harlegmos and then they don´t listen to what he said. No he had enough for today.

Marianna stepped closer to Larek. She couldn´t think straight if she was near Rath. " Alright. I´m sorry. I swear you have our undivided attention now".

" Forget it. It´s unimportant anyway", Larek saw on his timer on his right wrist. Judging after the way he cursed it seemed to be later than he thought. He squeezed the book in Mariannas hand " You should go now. You don´t have much time left". With that Larek blinked with his eyes and was gone.

Shocked Marianna saw to the place, where Larek stood a few seconds ago. How could he do that? " Where is he gone?".

" He´s probably at the castle and complaints about us", Rath said that like it was nothing unusual. But for Marianna it was something new. She didn´t know anybody who could do that. Rath noticed her baffled expression. " Didn´t you know that he´s a space shifter?". After he received a raised eyebrow he explained it to her. " He has the power to shift from one place to another with a blink of an eye".

" Wow. That´s what I call a useful power. He has to show me how he does that when we arrive at the castle", and she would bug him until he agreed to teach her. Althrough her powers were more dangerous than Lareks it was never wrong to pick up new things that could help you survive. Especially if you´re part of the royal army.

Rath rolled his eyes. Damn Larek and his stupid powers. " We should go now".

Marianna, who was in the process to open the book to look what was standing inside it, faced him at that. " No. I want to know what is written in there".

" You can do that later".

Marianna tried to send him a nasty glare. But Rath wasn´t even looking in her direction. He was too busy staring at the sky. " But I want to know now!".

Rath glanced away from the sky and turned his head in her direction. Now he knew that she was a princess. He heared that tone that Marianna had in her voice and he knew from where. Ava used this tone as well when she wanted something from him. " We don´t have time for that!".

Marianna put on her sad face and pouted. " Please".

Rath intented to stay strong. He wanted to just win for once against her. But it was hard when Marianna looked so absolutely adoring with her pouting face. No he couldn´t get sidetracked. " I said no".

Marianna saw that Rath was slowly weakening. Now she had to put in the big guns. Seductively she snuggled her body against his and stroked his hard chest with her forefinger. Then she looked up, directly in Rath´s eyes " Pretty please".

Rath had to swallow at that. He could feel his constancy crumbling. She was so near he could smell her unique scent and if he would bent his head a little lower he could kiss her. For a moment he forgot that they didn´t have time for this dwadling. He even forgot where he was and what they had to do. The only thing in his mind was the strong urge to throw her to the ground and have his way with her. No stop that. He had to be hard. And how hard he was. Even she had to feel it. So he put on his mean face." We´re going. And that´s final!".

Marianna was shocked about the commanding tone in his voice. But then a smile broke out on her face. Oh boy that tone in his voice was a total turn on. Suddenly she noticed that her body began to tingle all over and heat was arising from strange places. " Alright. You win".

" Finally", Rath was glad that this topic was closed and they could at last continue their track again. He didn´t know how long he could have withstand her torture. " Now get your cute little ass in gear", with a final slap on her butt he started in the direction of the dark path, which would bring them back to the camping place they slept the night before. Hopefully they made it before the suns would be going down.

Marianna gawked after him with her mouth wide open. Did he just order her around? And what was yet more bad, she liked it. A lot. Quickly she put the book in her backpack and followed Rath. On her way to his side she noticed that he walked a bit strange. " Did I hurt you after all when I fell on you?".

Rath stopped his walk and looked back at her. Was that a trick question? " No. Why you´re asking?".

" It´s just that you´re walking funny".

Now Rath seemed to be embarrassed. A little flush graced his face. He couldn´t tell her that he had slight problems to walk with a hard on. He was just trying to find a position so that his pants wouldn´t rub at his penis all the time and make it worse for him to put one foot infront of the other. " It´s nothing. Let it go".

" I could help you", Marianna felt a tad bit bad about that. After all it was her fault that he had problems.

Rath´s blush got deeper when she said that and the image that popped in his head didn´t help his problem either. " Thanks for asking. But no".

" Alright. If you´re sure".

" Absolutely sure", Rath turned around and started walking again.

Marianna tried to hide her laughter. Like she didn´t know what his problem was. She had felt it pressing against her stomach. And boy was it big. No wonder that he couldn´t walk straight anymore. Pleased with herself she trailed after Rath with a light bounce in her step.

All the way back through the dark path their were coming from, Rath was curious why Marianna was so happy. She wasn´t even scared anymore, althrough nothing had changed since they went through it an hour ago. But her cheerfull mood was contagious and he caught himself smiling at her antics. She was definitely a strange girl. A strange girl he loved more than his own life. The planet was doomed, because Rath found his soulmate. He was startled at that thought. Where was this coming from? He didn´t even believe in something like soulmates or true love? What was happening to him? And why just now? Rath was so deep in thoughts that he didn´t notice that they came out of the scary part of the forest and into the lighter one. Then he registered out of the corner of his eyes that Marianna was in the process to eat a berry that was poisonous. Immediately he stormed to her and snatched her hand away from the bush.

" Don´t do it. They´re poisonous".

Marianna was shocked for a few seconds. Geez did he have to scare her to death? Her heart almost stopped beating. Carefully she laid a hand on her chest where she could feel her heart beating really fast now. " You almost gave me a heartattack".

" I´m sorry. But believe me when I say that you don´t want to know what happens when you eat those things", Rath tried them when he was younger. It was a bet between Larek, Zan and him. He won the bet, but to a price. For a few days he couldn´t keep his food down, on both ends. It wasn´t a pleasant experience.

Marianna eyed the wonderful green berries again. They looked really tempting and because she skipped the breakfast she was pretty hungry. Thankfully Rath stopped her before she could put them in her mouth. " Thank you". And she really meant it.

" All right. Let´s get going. I want to arrive at the camping place before it´s to dark to see anything", Rath didn´t wait for a reply before he began to move again.

Marianna slowly followed him. The thoughts about the book were forgotten, but now they were replaced with Rath´s behaviour. Ok for any other person it wouldn´t be such a big deal that he stopped her from a painful experience, but for her it was a big deal. Every other male she ever came in contact with wouldn´t have done that. They would have watched her how she stuffed her face with those berries. For the first time she really believed that Rath cared about her. It was easy to say that you loved someone and even if you didn´t mean it. But to show it was a little harder. And Rath just proved that. Maybe she should finally release her past, her bad experience and create new, better memories. Maybe it was time to let go of her fears and just live for the now. It was slowly time to stop living with ghosts and return back to the real world. Althrough she knew that she still had a long way to go to achive the goal she was putting on herself, she was sure that she would make it someday. For now she did the first step in the right direction. The next step was to show Rath that he wasn´t alone with his feelings. And she already knew how she had to do it. Just as she finished that thought she bumped into Rath, or rather his backpack.

" What´s up? Why are we stopping?".

" To strike our camp here", Rath took his backpack from his shoulders and put it near the fireplace. " I don´t know about you but I´m rather hungry".

" I didn´t realize that we´re already that far", Marianna must have been so deep in thoughts that she was unaware how long they were walking. Was the time really gone that fast? Oh my. Either she was a slow thinker or they were faster than she thought. But the path seemed to be longer when they went from it.

" Yeah. I noticed that", especially because he observed her the whole way. She seemed to come to a conclusion about something. He tried to use his powers and take a look in her feelings, but then he decided against it. He shouldn´t do that. If she wanted to share her emotions with him, she would do it.

" Sorry about that", Marianna finally took her backback from her shoulders and threw it on the ground, too. " Why don´t you look for a few branches we can set on fire and I will take care of anything else?".

" Does that mean you will cook without insulting me?", Rath just wanted to be sure, before he went to bring fire wood. Not that she started to call him names again, just because he let her make the meal.

Marianna had to smile at the reminder. Ok she was out of line the night before. But she made her point clear to him and he at least asked now if she cooked. " Yes. Now go".

Rath saluted quickly and then wandered deeper into the wood to go hunting after branches. Marianna watched after him and when she couldn´t spot him anymore, she sat on the ground and started to spread out the sleepingbags, which where hanging on their backpacks. Then she found a cane of bospe ( beans with bacon), a cane of lineinto ( stew ) and two big kafflen ( potatoes ). What should they eat? That was a tough question. Either they this or nothing. She absolutely hated stew, no matter with what. Hence the cane of lineinto went in the backpack again. Before she began to eat that, she rather would hunt down an animal, kill and gut it. How anybody could it this was out of her imagination. But now she had to choose between the kafflen or the cane of bospe. After she couldn´t make up her mind what they should eat, she gave up and decided that they would eat both. So now she only had to wait for Rath, who would bring the needful fire wood with him.

A few moments later Rath appeared with an arm full of branches. He must have been lucky, because he wasn´t gone that long and yet he had many fire wood. " Did you know how many creature are living in these woods?

" Don´t tell me, I´m begging you", it was bad enough that she had a good imagination about it, but to really know it. No thank you. She still wanted to sleep tonight.

" On my way I saw this thing. It had at least twenty little feets and it smelled really bad", Rath loved to tease her. And since he knew how scared she was of harlegmos and probably other crawling creatures he had to use the opportunity.

Marianna took a stone that was lying beside her and threw it at Rath." Shut up. I don´t want to hear it".

Rath laughed about her. She was just to easy to tick off. And it was a pleasure for him to see her shuddering. " Alright. You don´t have to be violent".

Marianna eyed him warily when he kneeled besides her and put the branches in the fire place. She hoped that he let everything that was living in this forsaken forest where it was and didn´t think he could bring something with him, just to scare her. That would fit him. Just as Rath wanted to set the branches on fire, Marianna remembered the kaffeln and quickly snatched two of twigs away. After she received a raised eyebrow she pointed at their meal. While Rath could finally make a fire, Marianna stuck the kaffeln on the branches.

After they stuffed their bellies and were sated, both were still sitting around the fire and watched how the flames danced in the light breeze. The suns were long gone now and the night was a bit chilly, but not cold. The silence which was surrounding them was not uncomfortable. They were just too lazy to talk and too awake to sleep. But then Marianna stood up and went to her backpack.

" What are you doing?", Rath wouldn´t have minded to just sit there a little bit longer and enjoy the quiet.

" I want to know what´s standing in this book", Marianna finally pulled it out of her backpack and threw it on the ground. Shortly after that she laid herself with her belly down on her sleepingbag. She took the book and opened the first page.

Rath wouldn´t say it loud, but he was curious as well. Therefore he put himself beside Marianna. " And what´s standing in there?".

She was browsing through the whole book. But everywhere was the same. " Absolutley nothing. The pages are empty".

Rath couldn´t believe that. But when he saw that the pages where indeed blank he was a bit confused. Why did they have to go to this mission, if the treasure they had to retrieve was just nothing more than a book with blank leafs? That made no sense at all. " Maybe it´s a diary?".

" No. A diary has a lock on the outside", Marianna didn´t possess that, but she saw that Vilandra and Ava had one of it. She would never entrust her deepest and darkest thoughts in a book. She would probably be to scared that someone might find it.

" Alright. Then it´s really a piece of crap", Rath took the book out of Marianna´s hands and threw it on his sleepingbag. They didn´t need it, if it didn´t give them any information.

Marianna rolled on her back and starred at the sky above. She was a little dissapointed about the book. Ok she knew that nothing really interesting would be standing in there. But nothing at all. That was simply whacked. Why should they find it then? Definitely not because it was important, that was for sure. She turned her head to Rath to ask him what he was thinking about all this, when she noticed that he watched her with a strange expression on his face.

" What are you looking at? Do I have something in my face?".

Rath stretched his right arm out and touched her face softly. At first he caressed her cheek and then he stroked her hair out of her face. " No. I just notice how beautiful you look in the moonlight"

" The light must be shining on my good side then", Marianna was slightly nervous. Never did someone look at her like that. With so much longing and desire. And Rath could probably see it mirroring in her own eyes.

Rath smiled at her. He wanted to take her nervousness and give her the feeling that he wouldn´t hurt her. " I want to kiss you so bad right now".

" Who´s stopping you? It´s not me", Marianna wanted it as bad as Rath, if not more. She was finally ready to do what they both wanted for a long time now.

Without a word Rath slowly bend down until his lips touched hers. For a few seconds he waited, that was actually always the moment he woke up and detect that everything was just a dream. But when he realized that Marianna was still there he enveloped her face with his hands and fully kissed her. At first they went slow, but when Marianna opened her mouth and let his tongue enter Rath couldn´t detain himself any longer. He let all the passion that was building since he knew her flow into this kiss. It was rough and yet still gentle, powerful but not painful. It was just everything. Slowly Rath kissed his way to her throat. When he hit a really sensitive spot right under her left ear, Marianna moaned extremely loud. Encouraged through the noise Rath softly bit the spot, but not to much to draw blood, just enough to let her feel it. Meanwhile Marianna´s hands found their way to Rath´s neck. Carefully she tried to caress him, but when he bit her she almost lost it and unfortunaly for him she was digging her fingernails in his flesh. However he seemed to like it. At least she thought so after the strange grunt he made. She was just in the process to let her right hand trail down his back, when she felt Rath´s hand was making his way under her shirt and he started to stroke her left breast tenderly. Now she was thankfully that she didn´t wear something underneath her clothes. The sensation that broke out in her whole body was unbelievable. She never felt so lightheaded and open like now. Oh shit. She died probably and this all was just an imagination.

" I want to feel you. All of you", Rath whispered in her ear. He wanted her to know that they wouldn´t do anything she didn´t want.

Marianna wanted to scream that he should do whatever he wanted. But she was too far gone to utter a complete sentence. " Me too".

That was all Rath needed. With trained skills he took her shirt and her tanktop off and threw them away. He didn´t care if they got dirty or not. All that mattered right now was just Marianna and her absolutely stunning body, which was laying there for him to take. He almost destroyed his shirt with his effort to get rid of his shirt and his tanktop. After that he laid himself on her. He propped himself on his hands, so that he didn´t crush Marianna under him. She was looking with so much lust in her eyes at him, that he was on the brink to lose everything in his trousers. Strange she didn´t even touch him in any way. He watched as her tongue came out of her mouth and wet her lips. Judging after the little twinkle in her eyes, she knew what she was doing. Slowly her hand snaked over his chest to his belly until it dissapeared in his trousers. With ease she took his manhood and caressed it.

" I hope that´s not your weapon", Marianna breathed out. Her nervousness was almost gone. Now she was in the mood to play.

" I don´t know. Maybe you should check it. Just to be safe", Rath wanted to see if she would do it. Besides he wanted out of his pants or he would make them dirty. Her hand was softly stroking up and down his shaft and it was hard for him to restrain himself.

" That´s a brilliant idea", Marianna beamed at him. Quickly she rolled them around that she was on top of Rath. Now she had better access to his pants. And she had the control.

Teasingly she let herself slide from his body until her face was hovering over his crotch. Even from there she could smell his lust and it was arousing. She opened his belt from his trousers in slow motion and made sure that she came often in contact with his penis that was captured behind the zipper. When she came to the pants she had enough from all the teasing and with one swift move she used her powers to let it dissapear, together with his underwear. Now that´s what she called to use her power properly.

" Eager, are we?", Rath didn´t have anything against it. He waited too long already to come to this stage in their relationship. If it would have gone after his mind, they would have had sex a long time ago. But he was glad that they waited, because now it meant something.

" I can go slower if you want", Marianna threw a glance at his cock. He was standing proud in the air, waiting for action. " But I don´t think you can hold out any longer".

" Do what you want. You´re in control now", and that was big for him. After all he didn´t give up his control for anybody. But with Marianna he wasn´t scared or insecure.

Marianna eyes were lighting up at that. " I´m in control? I like it", that was the last words that were spoken between them. Without a word Marianna ripped her remaining clothes off of her body and pounced on him. It was wild, it was pure lust and it felt groundshattering. They didn´t care that it was cold, because the heat they shared was warming them, or that they were in the open, where anybody could see them. The only thing that mattered where their bodies who craved after another. A few hours and two explosive orgasm later Marianna and Rath were lying side by side in the sleepingbag. Her head was resting on his chest and Rath was softly stroking her arm. Both were played out, but satisfied.

" Are you alright?", Rath was a little concerned, because he wasn´t exactly tender to her. Ok she wasn´t, too , but he was a guy he could stand it.

Marianna turned his head so that she could look him in the eyes. She knew why he was asking that. But she wasn´t made out of glas. " Yes. More than alright actually".

" Good to know", Rath yawned really loud. " I don´t want to be a jerk, but you tired me out".

Marianna felt really sleepy, too. " Yeah. We should probably sleep now. We had a long day".

Rath bend his head and gave Marianna a kiss on her temple. " Good night".

" Good night. Sleep tight", Marianna closed her eyes and made herself comfortable on Rath chest. It was rather a pretty comfy place to lay your head on. And she could listen to his heartbeat. It was the most beautiful sound she heared.

Rath smiled at the back of Mariannas head. This was how he always wanted to go to sleep. Without worry and his lover in his arms. " I love you". With that Rath closed his eyes.

Marianna opened her eyes for a moment. He said it again. And the urge to tell him the same was there, too. But she couldn´t. Not yet al least. " I love you, too", she whispered really quite so she was the only one who could hear it.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20 Newfound Happiness**

Rath was the first who woke up that morning. Ok to be exactly he was woken up, because given the opportunity he would have slept a little longer. But something was shining in his face and it was a tad bit annoying. Slowly he opened his eyes to look what was disturbing his sleep. At first he had slight problems to keep his eyes open, because one of the suns was blinding him, but after his eyes got accustomed to the light he could finally regnorize his surroundings. The sky was clear with no cloud in sight at this morning. There was a slight breeze blowing, a few vogly (birds) were happily singing their songs and and the unmistakably smell of nature was waving through the air. Rath never noticed how beautiful a morning could be or he didn´t want to acknowledge it, because he didn´t have the time for it. But that would change from now on. A smile broke out on his face at that thought. Damn he was turning into Zan. Soon he would pick up blum (flowers) for his lover and recite poetry for her. A few weeks ago he would have slapped everyone who would have told him that he was turning to mush because of a girl. But now he everything was different. He didn´t know at that time that there was someone who could evoke feelings inside him he didn´t know existed. No wonder his sister was always smiling and floating through the halls in the palace. Now he understood Zan and Ava better, why they were always so damn happy and in high spirits. Because he felt just like that right at this moment. Rath turned his head to his left, where the head of Marianna lay. She was still sleeping peacefully with her face turned in his direction and a hand under her cheek.

**_And I'd give up forever to touch you  
Cause I know that you feel me somehow  
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be  
And I don't want to go home right now _**

_**  
**_

Rath touched her flawless face tenderly with his fingertips, not to strong to wake her, but enough that he felt her skin. She was so damn beautiful that it took his breath away everytime she was near him.

_**And all I can taste is this moment  
And all I can breathe is your life   
Cause sooner or later it's over  
I just don't want to miss you tonight**_

He would never understand how she could go undetected through his walls and straight into his heart. He didn´t even know when he fell in love with her or the reason for it, just that it happened.

_**And I don't want the world to see me  
Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
When everything's made to be broken  
I just want you to know who I am**_

And after last night the emotion ran deeper than he could have ever imagined. She was now part of him like he was a part of her.

_**And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming  
Or the moment of truth in your lies  
When everything seems like the movies  
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive**_

They were bound to each other and nothing could break or destroy that bond. And the strange thing was that he wasn´t even scared or terrified. Just this feeling that this was like it should be.

_**And I don't want the world to see me  
Cause I don't think that they'd understand  
When everything's made to be broken  
I just want you to know who I am**_

"Why are you smiling?".

Rath was startled out of his thoughts. He didn´t notice Marianna waking up or that he still was smiling like an idiot. He let his gaze wander to her eyes, which were looking at him right how. He never noticed how the suns were reflecting the green in there. " Am I smiling? I didn´t notice that".

" It is my hair, isn´t it?", Marianna touched the top of her head. Just like she imagined, her hair was in total disorder. Great she must be looking like a freak right now.

Rath stopped caressing her cheek and stroked her hair instead. Why was she suddenly worried about her appearance? It wasn´t like he saw her in that condition for the first time. " No. I like that out of bed look on you. It´s a turn on".

" You´re just saying that, because I let you in my pants", Marianna enjoyed Rath´s caress. It felt great and it gave her the feeling that it wasn´t just a one time deal. Now she knew that she made the right decission.

" Actually you were in my pants", and he didn´t have anything against it. In fact he wouldn´t mind something like that right now. He was ready for the the next round. But that was nothing new since Marianna came into his life.

Marianna rolled her eyes. He was such a guy sometimes. " Technicalities". She made a devaluing gesture with her left hand. " And I didn´t hear you complain last night".

" How could I? You didn´t let me", Rath teased her. Althrough when he thought about it, she really gave him no room to say something. She was all over him and touched him in places that let all his blood pool in another region.

" Poor baby. What can I do to make it up to you?", ok she knew that she was a little wild and admittedly violent. But he was not that different. He could dish out more than he took in.

" How about a good morning kiss?".

Marianna smiled at him. That was a new side of Rath she really liked. Althrough she liked it more when he was stubborn, pissed off and on the brink to strangle her. Hopefully he didn´t start to recite poems to her. That would probably scare her for life. " I think I can do that". Marianna bend slightly forward with her torso and pressed her lips on Rath´s.

Immediately the connection they both shared now sprung to life again. They both could feel what the other felt. The kiss was much more intense than every other they shared so far. What started as a innocent kiss was fast becoming a need for more. It was like a hunger that needed to be sated or a spark that evolved fast in a wildfire. Marianna and Rath could feel their souls melt together. It was one of the most beautiful emotions on the planet. Neither of them wanted to let go in that moment. Suddenly a noise to their right startled them and broke the connection instantly. Rath was the first who came out of his trancelike state. For a few seconds he was confused what just happened and why. Then he watched as Marianna opened her eyes. She seemed to be equally confused.

" What was that?", oh boy if every kiss would be like that she didn´t want to do anything else anymore. She had slight problems to bring her breathing under control and her heart seemed to want out of her chest. But it was the most intense feeling she ever received.

" I don´t know", and he didn´t really care about that. Althrough he felt like he just run a hundred miles it was the best feeling ever.

Marianna just wanted to ask if that would always happen when they kissed, when the noise, that broke the connection between them, came again. Rath was turning his head in all direction and tried to find the reason for it. But he couldn´t detect anything, they were absolutely alone right now. When he faced Marianna again he saw her smiling at him.

" What?", did he miss something here? Why was she smiling like she knew something he didn´t?

" I found the cause for the noise", Marianna pointed behind him. There was a big tree standing and in the crown there was a tiny, brown, furry thing crawling. At a closer look Marianna regnorized it as a crissle ( squirrel).

Rath flipped his body to the other side and then he saw it too. That little thing disturbed his good work for a second round? Just a crissle? Couldn´t it have taken another tree? " Hey furball stop the noise and look for another place".

Marianna had to laugh when the crissle looked at Rath and started to make strange noises. It sounded like the little thing was raving at him and tried to tell him that he should find another place. Mariannas laughter got even worse when Rath turned around and looked at her with a perplexed expression. " Is this thing mocking me?"

" I think so", she just brought out through her laughter. It was just too funny how Rath got agitated because of a tiny animal.

" I´ll show him what it means to piss me off", Rath was in the process to stand up. He didn´t care that he was nude. Nobody mocked him and got away with it. Animal or not.

Marianna gripped his arm and tried to keep him under the covers. " What are you trying to do? It´s just an animal".

" I don´t care. I have to defend my dignity".

" I think your dignity can bear to lose this fight", Marianna had pity with the crissle. It just did what the nature provided. Besides it didn´t bother her at all.

Rath seemed to think about it. Then he shrugged his shoulders and ignored the crissle, which was already gone anyway. He started smiling and leant closer to Marianna. " So. Where were we just now?".

" I think you wanted to make breakfast, while I go to the lake to make myself presentable again", and before Rath could protest or say anything Marianna kissed him quickly, climbed out of the sleepingbag, took her clothes and went down to the lake.

Rath looked after her naked butt for a while, before he leant back with his hands under his head and a silly grin on his face. No life couldn´t get better than that. Nothing could destroy his good mood ever. Even if a meteor should smash the planet, he would die as a happy man. Pleased with himself he closed his eyes and enjoyed the nice weather.

When Marianna came back a few minutes later, fully clothed and her hair bound to a messy bun, Rath was still laying on his back and let the suns shine on his naked chest. Marianna shook her head and wondered why she was so surprised. After all she knew him rather well by now and he had never done something she told him to do. " Hey lazybone. You have to get up".

" Don´t wanna", Rath had no intention to move for awhile. He was quite content with his position. Just one thing was missing in the picture. Marianna at his side, preferable naked and ready for action.

" You have to. It´s still a long way we have to go and I don´t want to walk in the heat again".

The only response Marianna got from Rath was a grunt. She didn´t know if it was a yes grunt, a no grunt or shut up grunt. Sometimes it was hard to understand what he wanted. But she wouldn´t give up now. Slowly she kneeled beside him on the ground and bent her face until she was near his. " If you get up now I have a surprise for you tonight".

Rath opened his eyes at that. " Really? And what?".

" If I tell you than it´s not a surprise anymore", Marianna knew she had won. She could see it in his eyes.

But before she could congratulate herself, Rath jumped to his feet and almost run her down. Then he took his clothes and whizzed away. Marianna watched his naked form run out of her sight, before she broke out in laughter. He was such a guy. With that thought in mind she prepared the breakfast, which they would eat during her walk back. If they wouldn´t have wasted so much time they could eat extensively. After she made two groggles with shami (sausage) and Rath wasn´t back again she decided to clean the campside. She was just in the process to tuck away the sleepingbags, when she discovered the book. She almost forgot it. Slowly she bent down to pick it up and put in it her backpack, when she notized that something was different about it. Carefully she took it in her hands and opened the first page. To her surprise this time there were no blank pages, instead they were full of strange words. Words Marianna couldn´t read nor understand. She turned to the next page and found five pictures staring back at her, five really well known photos. The first ones where of Rath, Zan, Vilandra and Ava. And the last one under them was of hers. How could that be? Why wasn´t it in there when they checked it yesterday? How could suddenly stand something in this book when it was blank the last time? And most important, why couldn´t she read the words?

" Hey I´m back and ready to go".

Marianna was startled out of her thoughts. She turned around and shoved the books in his hands. " What does that mean?".

Rath, who was confused about the behaviour towards him, took the book and eyed the page. Surprised about the thing he saw he took a closer look. How did that happen? It was blank last night. And why couldn´t he understand a thing that was written in there? " How is this possible? I mean it was blank, or did I dream this?

" No, it was blank. But what I want to know is, why is there something now and not yesterday? What triggered it? And why are there pictures of us?", Marianna had the feeling that it was important. For what she didn´t know, but it seemed to be important nontheless.

Rath looked at Marianna. Why was she asking him that? He was as clueless as her, if not more. " How should I know that? I´m seeing this for the first time, too".

" I know", Marianna rubbed her face. She didn´t know why she reacted so strongly about this book. Maybe it was the fact that her picture was in there or that her feelings told her that it was needed in the future. " I´m sorry".

" It´s alright", Rath closed the book and put it in his backpack, which was lying at his feet. Then he watched Marianna closely. Why was she so overreacting over something trivial like a book? It didn´t make sense. Slowly he stepped to her and laid his arms on her shoulders. Immediately she embraced him tightly and pressed her face on his chest. " We´ll get on the bottom of this. Maybe the scientist know more about it"

Marianna breathed deeply in and smelled the unmistakable scent of Rath. It was really calming and cleared her head a little. " You´re probably right".

" Then we should finally get going. It´s still a long way", Rath released Marianna. After that he packed the remaining things in their backpacks, smeared their tracks and shouldered his backpack. He wanted to be quick. The sooner they made a move the sooner he got his surprise.

Marianna tried to help him, but he was too fast for her. So the only thing she could do was to strap her backpack on her shoulder and wait. A few minutes later they both continued their trek through the forest towards home. The path they walked back seemed to be a another one, because the trees and the bushes were looking kinda different. And Marianna should know that, because she watched her surroundings when they came by the last time. Rath didn´t seem to notice it or else he would have said something. But he just marched beside her with a small smile on his face. Marianna shook her head, he was probably wondering what the surprise was and if it included her. Preferable naked or barely clothed. She had to admit that she was a little scared when she woke up that morning. She didn´t know how she should act after last night. If it was just for one night and then he would do like nothing happened. But when she opened her eyes and saw the awe on his face, which was directed at her, she had no doubt that it wasn´t the end of their friendship, but rather the beginning of something more. Something so beautiful that there were no words to describe it and even if she had all the time in the world she couldn´t put in words what she felt. The strange this was, she had loved Lykus also, but now she noticed that it was more a love you feel towards your best friend than a lover. Still to an extent she still loved him and Marius and she missed them both. Maybe someday when everything calmed down she could contact them and explain what really happened. At that thought she noticed that something was grasping her hand. Surprised she looked at it and saw that Rath was holding her hand firmly in his. Then she turned her face to him and smiled. He returned it shortly and then looked straight ahead again. This time they didn´t talk much on their way. They didn´t need to, they were linked and could communicate with each other without speaking. It was a really comfortable silence. When the suns were in the process to go down, Marianna and Rath arrived at the boiling spring near the castle. They both were really happy to see something familiar. Althrough they thought it would take longer to get there. Marianna wanted to start running towards the castle, where her comfy bed and real food was. But Rath gripped her arm and stopped her.

" What are you doing? We´re almost home", Marianna could already smell the dinner and the scent of her pillow.

" They´re expecting us not before tomorrow", Rath didn´t want to go back yet. He wanted to enjoy their last night alone, without anybody who could disturb them.

" Yeah so. Then we´re just a little earlier. What´s the big deal?", Marianna couldn´t understand what Rath was doing. Didn´t he want to finally sleep in his own bed? Take a real shower? Or eat something someone else cooked for them?

" It´s our last night alone", Rath pulled Marianna closer to his body. Then he put his arms around her middle and kissed her thoat tenderly.

Marianna had to do everything in her power not to moan too loudly. Rath knew really what he was doing and where he had to do it. Damn him! One kiss and she was jello in his hands. " I like where your mind is going".

" I know", Rath pushed Mariannas backpack off of her shoulders and let it fall down on the ground, while he still worked on her throat. Marianna in contrast did the same to him.

" I have an idea", Marianna breathed in his ear. She had to say it now, because she didn´t know if she could utter a word if Rath didn´t stop what he was doing. " Let´s do it in the boiling spring".

Rath stopped instantly with the kissing and faced her. His eyes were sparkling mischievously and his whole face seemed to glow at the mention of the boiling spring. He licked his lips in anticipation. " Watersport? I like that". Rath started immediately to shred his clothes from his body. First his shirt and his tank top fell to the floor, then his shoes and lastly his pants. After that he made a show for Marianna and flounced all manly into the boiling spring.

Marianna laughed about his antics. What did she get herself into? She must be braindead to get involved with him. What was she thinking the night before? Oh right, she didn´t think at all. Besides he was absolutely hot without clothes. And boy was he endowed. Nobody would have said no to that. Marianna shook her head to get rid of her thoughts. She was turning into a male, just thinking with her abdomen.

" What are you waiting for? The water is really warm", Rath called to her. His ellbows were lying on the edge of the spring to hold himself up and the rest of his body was hidden under the water. If Marianna wouldn´t be already turned on by his earlier action, she would be now.

Slowly she kicked her shoes from her feet. Then she started to move her body to a rhythm only she could hear. She would give Rath a show he never forgot. Seductively she let her hands wander over her throat down her breast until she stopped at the hem of her tank top. Teasingly she lifted it a bit and showed Rath a piece of her belly before she pulled it down again. She wouldn´t pull it off all the way yet. She wanted him to wait a little longer, just until he begged her to take it off already. And after Rath heating gaze it wouldn´t take long before that happened. Encouraged through the response she got from him she took her time to open her belt and pull it out of her pants. Before it landed on the ground with a thud she was already working on her zipper. The whole time Marianna never took her eyes off of Rath, who was intensely watching her. After the smirk on his face he liked the show and the smirk grew bigger when the pants fell on the bottom. Now all Marianna was wearing were her panties, her tank top and a smile on her face. And it would be still awhile before she would lose one of the things. Besides she wanted to know how long Rath could endure the torture. With a wicked glimmer in her eyes she toyed with the straps of her top. She pulled them over her shoulder and back again.

" Marianna!", finally a reaction from Rath. He was obviously very frustrated. Neato! Just what she wanted. One more push and he would break.

" What? Don´t you enjoy the show?". Marianna put on her innocent face. Althrough she knew that Rath didn´t fall for that. He knew her better than that.

" Hell yeah! But if you don´t stop it I can´t guarantee for anything".

" In that case", Marianna ripped her tank top off of her body along with her panties. Then she joined Rath in the boiling spring. She couldn´t let him suffer that much.

Immediately Rath pulled her close to his hard body and started kissing her furiously. Marianna didn´t know what hit her, but she liked it. A lot. No wonder that she couldn´t enjoy the sex with Lykus, because he didn´t have any passion. It was just a in and out. Nothing more and nothing less. But here with Rath she could act out her wildest phantasies without being afraid to step over a boundary. Strange that she didn´t notice that she didn´t like nice that much. In that moment Rath found that sensitive spot right under her ear again and Marianna stopped thinking for the next hour.

After they both were spent and satisfied they decided to go out of the water. After all they didn´t set up their camp and they hadn´t eaten since this morning. So when they pulled their clothes on, both worked on their duties. That meant Rath would take care of the wood while Marianna did the same with their sleeping arrangement. Sometime later everything was set and Rath brought enough branches so that they didn´t had to freeze. Together they snuggled in front of the fire and enjoyed the last meal they would eat alone. From tomorrow on everything would be different again. No kissing, no touching and definitely no sex anymore.

" You know I could get used to this", Rath was stuffed, he had ingredible sex and the woman he loved at his side. What more could he want?

" Yeah, me too", Marianna wished that everything was different. That Rath wouldn´t have to marry another woman or that she wouldn´t have learned what it felt to be loved so unconditionally.

Rath heard the saddened tone in her voice. Why was she so sad all of the sudden? " What´s the matter?".

Marianna hadn´t notice that her frustration was hearing in her voice. " It´s just that tomorrow everything will change between us".

" How do you mean? Nothing will change", where did that thought coming from? And what did she mean by that? Rath slipped closer to Marianna and pulled her in front of his body so that her back was at his chest. Slowly he laid his chin on her shoulder and entwined his arms around her.

" We both know that´s not true. You have your obligation towards your family and I don´t want to destroy that". Marianna put her hands on his. She would love to continue what they had, but she was realist and knew that they couldn´t do that. Even if she was certain that Vilandra had nothing against it. Someone would get hurt and she didn´t want it to be her.

Rath couldn´t believe what he heard. Was she for real? " Then tell me why you started something in the first place when you knew that?".

Marianna breathed deeply in. How could she say him that she wanted to stop her attraction to him. She thought if she would finally bring it over her and sleep with him that her feelings for him would disappear. Too bad that her plan backfired and her feelings were only increasing after that. Now she didn´t know what she should do. " I just wanted to know how it would feel to be really loved by someone".

" Great and how does it feel?", Rath pushed Marianna away and jumped to his feet. He couldn´t be near her anymore without doing something stupid. Angrily he started to pace.

Marianna watched his movement. She knew that she hurt him and she couldn´t blame him. Not really. She would probably react the same way if the roles were revearsed. But she had to think about the consequences. " Rath. Don´t be mad".

" Who´s saying I´m mad. I´m not mad. Because mad doesn´t describe what I´m feeling right now", Rath´s eyes were twinkling with fury at Marianna. He didn´t scream but the ice in his voice spoke for itself.

Marianna had to do something or she could bury the progress they were making on this trip. She never wanted to hurt him or make him feel that she didn´t share the same feelings he had for her. " Listen. I didn´t say that it this was just a short fling. It meant a lot to me. You mean a lot to me. But we have to think about the others and not just us!".

Rath laughed at that. Yeah he meant a lot to her, but she didn´t love him like he loved her. He was so stupid to even think she could feel something for him. Usually he used this line to get rid of his conquers the next morning. He didn´t know how hurting it could be or that something like that would happen to him. " I have to give you credit. You played the woman in love pretty good. I really believed you".

" How can you say that? I didn´t fake anything", Marianna finally jumped to her feet and stormed to Rath. You could say anything about her, but she wasn´t someone who would simulate something she didn´t feel. If he thought so about her, then he really didn´t know her at all.

" Yeah. Just like you didn´t fake that you lost your memory", he should have known that he couldn´t trust her. His mind was telling him to play it save, but no he jackass had to listen to his heart. He should remember to never do that again. Ever.

Marianna was close to scream. Why couldn´t he stop with that? It was something complete different at that time. She didn´t know him or his family and she just survived the attack of her father. How would he have handled it? " Fine. Believe what you want. I´m through with this shit"

" Ha, I was right!", he just won his first verbal fight with her. And she unintentionally admitted that everything she said and did was a lie. But why didn´t he feel better? Why did it hurt so much?

Marianna didn´t bother to reply something at that. She could say the same thing a thousand times, but he still wouldn´t listen to her. So without a word she went to her sleeping bag and hit the sack. Maybe she had more luck to talk with him more mature tomorrow.

Rath watched her lying down. He didn´t expect her to give up so simply. Maybe he was too hard on her? Ok he knew that he was a bit out of line. But what she said had really hurt his feelings and he reacted the only way he knew. Old habits die hard. Rath rubbed his face with his hand. Why was life so damn complicated? With that thought he followed Marianna and went to sleep. Maybe tomorrow everything would look different.

Undetected from Marianna and Rath, a dark figure, who witnessed everything they both did in the time they arrived at the boiling spring, creeped quietly away. With a scrowl on its face and a plan to destroy that happiness. Forever.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21 Hurt feelings and girl talk**

Marianna was the first one to wake up the next morning. That was probably because she couldn´t sleep well. The fight she had with Rath was still fresh in her mind and bothered her more than she let on. She didn´t know why he reacted so strong about her statement. She only vocalized what they both were thinking or at the very least her. How did he think their relationship would continue when they came back to the castle? Just like it began? Even he had to know that this was impossible. After all his parents arranged the engagement between him and Vilandra. Did he thought that they would be happy when Rath would announce that he fell in love with her? Or that they would realize their mistake and go all " Of course we break the engagement so that you can love Marianna"? She knew that this wasn´t the case and she accepted it. Now the only problem would be to get Rath to accept it without starting a fight again. Yeah fat chance of that happening. Marianna knew that she was facing a hell of a challenge. Rath was the most stubborn person she met in her life and to get him to listen to reason was slim to none possible. But she wasn´t someone who shied from a challenge because it seemed to be impossible, no she was the exact opposite. And she would get Rath to listen to her, no matter if he wanted or not. He should dress himself really warm, because he just found his master when it came to who can get one´s way better. Furthermore she had one advantage on her side, she was a woman and woman could talk as long as they didn´t get tired or bored. She should know it, because she made arguing an art form. Well that was the opinion of Lykus at least. He told her once that if babbling would be a weapon she would be leader of all armies in the whole universe. Until today she didn´t know if it was an compliment or an insult. Thinking of Lykus, she wondered how he was doing, if he was sad about her death or if he didn´t think about her at all? Did he believe that she would kill her own mother or did he really know her to not believe such a thing? Lykus was harder to read than Rath and that meant something, because Rath was like a closed book sometimes. Marianna turned her head to Rath and watched his face for awhile. He really hurt her last night. The things he said to her were more painful than the injures she got from her escape. How could he think she would fake her feelings for him? How could he think she was capable of that, considering her experience with unrequited love and how painful that could be? He as an empath should know better. You can´t fake feelings, either their there or not. End of story. Marianna stood up from her sleeping bag. She walked a few steps to the boiling spring and sat on the edge of it. Carefully she touched the water surface and watched how the water moved under her hand. She should stop thinking, it did her no good. The only thing was just that she got more confused the more she thought about everything. Suddenly she saw the reflection of another person in the water and startled. Until she regnorized the face of Rath. He was standing behind her with an sad expression.

" Hey", He seemed to feel guilty. Good, he deserved it.

" Hey".

Rath planted his butt next to Marianna. He was a little scared, because she was obviously still angry at him. And he couldn´t blame her. He acted like an ass the last night, he knew that. He said things, he regretted now. Of course he knew that she didn´t fake anything and that she felt exactly like him, even if she didn´t say it out loud. " How much do you hate me now?"

Marianna breathed deeply out. Hate was such a strong word and no matter what Rath would do in the near future, she could never hate him. " I´m angry with you, but I don´t hate you".

" I´m sorry for the things I said last night", there it was out. Rath wasn´t used to apologize to someone. But it was important for him that Marianna didn´t think badly of him. He was not someone who hurt people because he was in a mood. Ok she would say something different about him, but in reality it wasn´t so.

Marianna slowly faced him. She didn´t expect a earnest meant apology. It must have taken a lot for him to admit that he made a mistake. Not everyone had the guts to do that. She had to give him credit for it. " You should be. You really hurt me, you know".

" I didn´t want that. Honestly. You´re the last person I want to hurt. But I heared that you wanted to end things with us and I overreacted", and now he had a bad conscience because of that.

Marianna thought about last night and the things she said, but she couldn´t remember in all the time to say anything about breaking up. " That´s not what I said. I just said that things would change, nothing more".

Rath nervously scratched his right eyebrow. Now he felt stupid for making a scene about nothing at all. After he heared the word change he assumed that this was the end and he didn´t bother listening after that. " Yeah, but change is the same like breaking up".

" Maybe in your twisted little word. But I meant that we have to be careful from now on. We can´t act like a couple in front of a few people, like your parents, King Salem and Queen Lutezia. We have to keep our relationship to us", Marianna had thought about it the first night they made love. She imagined how they could make their relationship work without nobody knowing it. And all she came up with was they had to act like usual and if they were alone they could do what they wanted.

Rath was a bit disappointed about the fact, that they had to hide their feelings in front of the others. But he understood Mariannas thinking, ok at least the important things. He may not happy about it, but he could accept it. " And how should we do it?".

Marianna smiled inwardly. It was not that bad to get Rath to listen to reason after all. Of course only if he wasn´t insano boy. Marianna arose slowly to her feet and looked down on him. " I´ll tell you on the way to the castle. I don´t know about you, but I´m starving".

" Since your talking about it. I´m starving, too", Rath rubbed his belly. Then he jumped to his feet and followed Marianna, who was already on the process to put away their things.

Both worked fast to get the sleeping bags in their backpacks and cleared the place where they put the fire. Within a few minutes they had everything in order and were ready to get back home. Both with their heads already in the dinning room and at the table full of food. That was all the motivation they needed when they started walking again. All the way back Marianna told Rath about the things she thought about and how they could make it work.

**The same time in front of the gate**

The whole royal family was eager awaiting the arrival of their homecomer. Mael and King Salem were curious if the both had found the treasure and if the plan about trusting each other was working. Zan, Ava, Vilandra and Larek were placing bets if Rath and Marianna would come here peacefully or if they would bicker like usual. Ava and Zan wagered for the last, while Larek and Vilandra were holding against it. Queen Lutezia was holding the hand of Abidale, who was still worried that something happened to her son and Marianna.

" Something bad happened. I can feel it".

Queen Lutezia squeezed Abidales hand reassuringly. " Don´t worry. Nothing bad happened. Rath knows this forest and they have a map. You will see, in a few moments we´ll probably hear them coming".

Abidale send a mean glare in the direction of her husband. It was his fault that his son and Marianna weren´t where they should be." I shouldn´t have listened to you. I knew it was a bad idea. But no you thought it was for the best".

" And I still think it was a great idea. It was necessary to do that", Mael didn´t understand why his wife made such a fuss about the whole thing. It wasn´t like he send them into something deadly. It was just a little trek through the forest and back. How dangerous could that be?

Abidale just wanted to open her mouth to fling an angry curse at her husband, when Queen Lutezia gave her a little nudge in her ribs. Immediately she looked ahead. And there she saw her son and Marianna walking in their direction. Obviously still alive and relative unharmed, as much as she could see at the moment. Finally the knot which had built in her stomach when Rath and Marianna left her sight was dissolving. A smile broke out on her face at the sight of her son deeply in a conversation with Marianna.

" There you are! We thought you weren´t coming back at all", Mael didn´t want to admit it, but he was relieved that his two protegees were back again. He was a little worried after all.

Marianna dragged her body the last steps to the others and let herself slump to the floor there. " We would have been sooner if someone would have known to read a map!".

" Hey! You couldn´t read it either. So don´t try to put all the blame on me here!", Rath pointed with his finger at her and tried to send her his meanest glare.

Marianna lifted her head to look up at Rath. " Why you´re getting your boxers in a twist? I didn´t say you couldn´t read it, I said someone. That means we´re both were incapable".

Ava and Zan turned to Larek and Vilandra and stretched their palms out. " We won. So Pay up".

Reluctantly they both fetched two silver coins each and passed it with a barrel of some antarian cusses. How could they lose that bet? Vilandra was so sure after Larek told her what he had witnessed that Marianna and Rath would be closer now? She should have never listened to Larek. What did he know anyway? He was a guy and wouldn´t regnorize a amorous couple even if it bit him. But when she watched Rath embracing his mother she noticed a big hickey on the right side of his throat. She turned her head to Marianna and discovered she had one, too? Concidence? Absolutely not.

" Are you alright? Did you eat enough? Are you cold?", Abidale checked her son for injuries or other indication that something wasn´t right.

Rath, who hated to be mothered, tried to get away from his mother. She was doing like he was gone for a year and not just three days. " I´m okay. Really". Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed the smug smile on Mariannas face and swore to wipe it away. " But you should check Marianna. Some animal bit in her finger".

" Oh dear. Let me look at it", Abidale turned away from her son, who was obviously alright, and went to Marianna. She grasped her hand and took a look at the fingers.

Marianna mouthed a bad word to Rath without anyone noticing it. He did that on purpose. " It´s ok. Nothing hurt. See all fingers are still at their place", to prove her point she wiggled every finger on her hand.

" I´m so glad that your here. Both of you", Abidale kneeled on the ground, which was a little difficult because of her dress and huged Marianna tightly. And for the first time Marianna huged her back as tightly. For a moment she let herself believe that it was her own mother embracing her so lovingly.

Rath observed the scene with a grin on his face. He didn´t know why Marianna was so upset about her parents knowing what happened between them? They loved her like she was their own child and she was part of the family. His mother didn´t hug just anyone or was worried about them. That was only reserved for people she loved or were close to her.

" I don´t want to appear like I´m not happy that Rath and Marianna are back, but my stomach is growling and he wants to be feed", Zan rubbed his belly for emphases. Besides he wanted to prevent that his aunt would squeeze Marianna to death.

Ava and Vilandra turned both to him at the same time and were throwing him a angry look. " Zan!". Ava even hit him at the back of his head.

Zan rubbed the spot were Avas hand made contact with his skull. " What? I was just saying".

" No. I think Zan is right. We should go inside", Mael was hungry himself and now that he knew that his son and Marianna were save and sound home again he could stomach something solid. Then he saw that his wife was still clinging to the poor girl. " Honey, release Marianna. I think she´s slowly turning blue from all your squeezing".

Abidale let Marianna go immediately. Like she noticed just now that she was still holding onto her. A little embarrassed and with red glowing cheeks she arose from her position. Instantly Mael took her hand and led her in the castle. King Salem and Queen Abidale followed them, with Zan and Ava in tow, which where in a discussion about proper attitude. The last were Larek and Vilandra, who smirked at Marianna and Rath with a knowing twinkle in their eyes, before they although made their way back.

" Did you see that? Do you think they both know anything?", Marianna jumped to her feet, ok she slowly stood up, because she still had her backpack on her shoulders and she was wasted. Maybe she was imagine things, but it looked like they knew something.

Rath faced Marianna with a interrogatory glance. Why did she ask that and why would it be so bad if it would be the case? " How should they know something?".

Marianna turned to Rath and just in that moment she noticed the big hickey on his throat. No wonder Vilandra and Larek smiled like that. Rath had the evidence that something happend at a place everybody could see. " Because you have a hickey, right there" Marianna touched the spot tenderly.

" What? Really? Cool", Rath was glowing over his whole face. He was marked as taken and damn proud of it. Everybody would see that he had a girl and was very much off the market. Maybe he should mark Marianna, too. Just as he wanted to work on the hickey, he saw that it wasn´t necessary. There was already one. " But I´m not the only one".

Shocked Marianna touched every part of her throat, like she would feel the hickey there. No that couldn´t happen. How should she explain that? It wasn´t like she could excuse it with a imaginary boy, because there was just Rath. Sooner or later everybody would add two and two together and know what they did. Damn men and their urge to mark their terrority! " Oh no. What should we tell everybody?".

" Nothing. Maybe nobody noticed anything", Rath wasn´t concerned about the situation. It wasn´t the first time his family saw him with love bits or other things that would indicate what he was doing. Besides they both were mature enough to do what they wanted.

Marianna glanced at Rath like he was stupid. Yeah nobody saw that thing that covered almost his whole right side of his throat. Nobody was blind and the hickey was too eye catching to overlook. But before they would start to fight again, Marianna let him believe that she had the same opinion. That´s why she just nodded a okay at him and walked to the castle, before anyone would question what was keeping them so long.

**After breakfast in the dinning room**

Everybody was sated and the dishes were just cleared. Now all were calmly sitting in their chairs and tried to digest the wonderful meal. Marianna ate so much that she felt like she would puke every moment. She never was so hungry that she scarfed down her food, but now she regretted it. Hopefully nobody was expecting her to stand up the next few minutes, because then she couldn´t garantee for anything. Judging after the position Rath was sitting in his chair he felt not that different. Well it was no wonder, because he seemed to swallow everything without chewing. Marianna wanted to laugh about the face Rath was making, but she knew that every wrong move would have bad consequences. So she tried to prevent every movement and rubbed her stomach. Thankfully they already told everybody what they did in the last three days and what happened on their way to the treasure. Ok not every last detail, they skipped the part where they made love and all that. But apart from that they knew everything what they had to know. Even the funny story about the little accident at the cottage, where Marianna fell on Rath. Larek couldn´t keep his big mouth shut and anybody had a good laugh about it, except of course the two people that were the reason for the joke. Marianna just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her, it was so embarrassing. Contrary to Rath, he found it just hilarous, because afterwards he was finally rewarded for all the waiting.

" Can we get up now?", Vilandra was bored and curious. She wanted to know how it came to the hickey and if she didn´t do it quickly she was going to burst out with the question in front of her family.

King Salem regarded every member of his family. When he was sure that there was nothing else to tell anymore he turned to Vilandra. " Of course".

Immediately Vilandra jumped to her feet, something she never did, because she knew that a princess had to behave properly, but in that moment she didn´t care about it. " Great". Then she grasped Avas hand, pulled her off of her seat and dragged her without a word out of the dinning room. She wanted to be in Mariannas room before her. At last she couldn´t avoid her and Ava there.

The others watched the scene with a smile on their faces. Vilandra changed so much since there was another girl in the castle, besides Ava. She was more happy and not so snobby anymore. Actually all the children had changed. Especially Rath, which was a mystery, because he told once that he wouldn´t change for anybody. Either they accepted him like he was or they could screw him. Strange how that could shift when you´re in love.

" I think that´s our cue to leave too, don´t you think Larek", Zan finally noticed the hickey, with a little help of his friend. And now they both wanted to know if Rath had more at other places and how far he went with Marianna.

" Yeah absolutely", Larek slowly arose from his position and waited for Zan to get his butt in gear. When he saw that Rath didn´t seem to stand up in the near future he faced him. " Aren´t you going with us?".

Before Rath could reply that he wanted to sit a little longer until his meal was finally digested, his father spoke up. " No. He and Marianna have something to do with me. He will join you and Zan later".

" Alright. We will be waiting in Zan´s room", with that Larek and Zan were gone.

Marianna and Rath were looking at each other when Mael said that they had something to do. Hopefully it didn´t implicate exercise or moving, because they wouldn´t endure it for sure. All they wanted to do right now was resting and nothing else. For anything more Mael had to wait another time, preferable the next day, when they felt more like themself again.

" Oh Lutezia look at the time. Didn´t we mean to do what we spoke about?", Abidale was probably the worst liar on this planet. Everybody could see right through it or maybe she wanted it to look that way.

" You´re right", Queen Lutezia gracefully arose from her chair and went to her husband. " We´ll be in town for a few hours. We´re back before dinner" quickly she gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked out with Abidale, who had done the same with Mael.

Marianna and Rath got more confused by the minute. Why did everyone act so strangly today? What was lying ahead of them? And why did they all disappear so suddenly? The confusion got worse when King Salem left the room with the excuse that he had something important to attend and Mael smiled frightening at the two. Oh Oh that smelled of trouble.

" So now that we´re alone, I´ll show you something", Mael stood up and glanced down at Marianna and Rath, who were looking a little green around the nose. They were probably thinking that it was something bad. " Move it. I don´t have all day".

Instantly they both were jumping to their feet, thankfully without puking their meals out on the floor and followed Mael. He was making his way through the long corridors with long quick steps. He seemed to be in a hurry. Marianna and Rath were trailing a little slower behind him like two criminals who were on the way to the shambles. Both had the same thought : Damn! It didn´t look really good for them right now. After they passed the training room, the library and the bedrooms they went down where the laundry and the dungeons were. There they walked through the slightly lit path, who was more scarier than the little piece of forest. Marianna started to shake, because it was just like in the castle of her father. Cold, lifeless, dark and terrifying. But it stopped the second Rath took her hand in his and squeezed it. Marianna smiled gratefully at him, before her view fell at Mael again. A seemingly endless while later they finally came to a stop in front of a wall made of stone. Puzzled Marianna and Rath watched Mael wave his hand over it and suddenly the wall was disappearing. And what they saw behind it let them lose their breath for a moment. Althrough Rath was growing up in this castle and he knew almost every room there, he never was in there before. The armoury.

" Wow", Marianna was twirling around trying to see everything at once. She had never seen so much weapons at once. There were laser swords, laser guns, cross bows with the fitting bolts, normal bows with arrows, shields and of course the armaments. All cleanly stacked side by side.

Mael smiled at the glowing face of Marianna. She was reminding him of his daughter when she went into a clothes shop. They shared the same expression of awe and happiness. " It´s overwhelming, isn´t it?".

" That´s a understatement. I want to move in here", Marianna stepped closer to a rack where many laser swords were hanging. Carefully she took one in her hand and tried to get a hold on it. She missed her own sword. It was handmade for her and a gift from Hewlik. It was the most precious present she ever received. Too bad that she had to leave it behind.

Rath, who was busy with a laser gun the whole time, finally found the time to watch what happened around him. He saw his father eye Marianna with so much pride that he got jeaulous for a moment. But the feeling went away as fast as it came, because he knew that his father felt the same way with him. Besides it was a sign that his father considered Marianna as a full member of the family. " So, why are we here for?".

" To get your reward for the successfull mission", Mael pointed at the wall behind them. He used the time the kids were away for finishing a few things he thought were necessary for their future.

Marianna and Rath turned around simultaneously and noticed for the first time the two armaments hanging on frames. One was large with a chain mail shirt, a bronze breastplate with the royal sign on the front, the matching leg and shoulder armor, a black belt for the weapons and metal boots. Except for the size and that it was silver the other armor looked like a exact replica of it. Slowly Marianna and Rath moved in the direction of them and took a closer look. They were both touched deeply and it could be seen on their faces.

Mael was relieved that his surprise had worked so good. He would keep this picture of his son and his almost daughter with so much joy on their faces forever in his mind. " Don´t be so shy. You can touch it if you want".

They didn´t need to be told twice before they started to examined it carefully. Marianna was impressed with the detailed work on her breastplate and the royal sign that seemed to be burnt in it. Then she noticed the chain that was hanging at the shoulder armor. Nosily she took it in her hands and eyed it particularly. On the chain were two tags with her initals, her age and the position she held. Surprised she read the words Leading Commander on it. Judging after the holy shit she heard beside her Rath found the dog tags, too. Now it was as good as official that they would be the second most important people after the king. Marianna couldn´t fight her tears any longer and with a quick movement she hugged Mael tightly.

" Thank you. You don´t know how much that means to me", could be heard through her sobs. Usually she wasn´t someone who would cry in front of others, but since she came into the castle it changed. She was a completely different person now. A person with people who loved her, a boy who meant a lot to her and friends who cared about her friendship.

Mael had to blink his tears away. He didn´t expect such a emotional release with Marianna. She wasn´t like that normally. But if he was honest, he liked her much better that way. " You don´t have to thank me. You deserve it. Both of you". At that part he looked to his son, who was remarkable quiet.

Then he saw something that was more unusual then his quietness. For the first time he saw Raths eyes shining with unshed tears. Before he knew what was happening his son was threwing himself in his arms or rather the arm, because one was already occupied with Marianna. For a few minutes the three were standing in the armoury tightly interwined with each other, before they noticed how it must look like.

Marianna was the first to detach herself. Quickly she tried to wipe away the remaining tears on her face and destroy any evidence that she cried. It was one thing to open up to someone who understood you, another to show your weakness to people who thought they understood you. Meanwhile Rath was rubbing his eyes furiously with the sleeve of his shirt. He wanted to hide the fact that he cried like a girl. He didn´t get emotional with other people around, but it was save here, because he saw his father brush something wet from his face.

Mael noticed the look from his son. " I just got something in my eye".

" Yeah right", Rath didn´t believe it one bite. His father had to be smarter than that. He laid an arm on Maels shoulder and leant closer to his ear. " But don´t worry thats a secret that stays between us".

While Rath and his father were teasing each other, Marianna had discovered a door at the far end of the room. It had weird symbols on it, the same she saw on the book. The book that everybody said it didn´t mean anything, althrough Marianna had the feeling that they were lying about that. Why else did it react so strangly when she and Rath touched it? Or why were they words nobody could understand? Question over questions, which nobody wanted to answer them.

" What´s behind that door?", she pointed at it. Maybe it was one answer she would be getting.

Mael turned to Marianna and then to where she was pointing at. " Oh. There´s our newest weapon. It´s still in the making. But when it´s finished it will be the most powerful weapon on this and probably any other planet".

Now Rath was curious. He didn´t even know that his father was building something new. " Can we see it?".

" I´ll show you when it´s done", Mael went to the armaments, took the dog tags and gave it their rightfully owners. " I think it´s time for us to go".

Marianna and Rath attached the chains around their necks and followed Mael out of the armoury. The way to their rooms was relative quiet, which had probably to do with the fact that Marianna and Rath were starring proudly at their dog tags the whole way. Both deeply lost in their thoughts. When they walked by the training room, Mael took off without a word. After all he had still a job to do, his men weren´t waiting for him, or rather they would make trouble like usual when he wasn´t around.

**Mariannas room**

Vilandra and Ava were sitting excited on Mariannas bed. They wanted to know what they weren´t told about the adventure. Actually Ava didn´t know about the hickey´s until Vilandra told her about her observation. Now they were waiting for the owner of this room to appear. Just as Vilandra wanted to stand up, the door flew open and Marianna came through it. For a moment she was shocked to see that she wasn´t alone.

" What are you doing here?".

Vilandra smiled over her whole face. " We´re waiting for you".

" And why?", Marianna could picture the why, but she wasn´t in the mood to tell them anything. She was bodily exhausted and her mind was almost in the same condition. She just wanted to lie down and rest for a few hours.

Vilandra arose from the bed to get a better look at Marianna. " You know why. Don´t play dumb with me".

" Can we do it later. I promise that I will tell you all the details another time. Just not now", maybe they would be indulgent with her and respect her wishes. But after she saw Vilandras stubborn face she knew that they wouldn´t leave her room before she told them everything. Ava didn´t say much, she was just sitting there and let Vilandra talk. However she was as curious as her friend beside her. Defeated Marianna walked to the cosy chair near her bed and sat on it. " Ok. What do you want to know?".

Vilandra made herself comfortable on the bed again and started preparing for a hell of a story. " Everything".

" And don´t leave the good stuff out", finally Ava opened her mouth. It wasn´t like she had problems with communication to other people. She was just a person who only talked when she had something to say. And she respected the privacy of other people, usually.

Marianna groaned inwardly. They would be here for awhile if they wanted to know every last detail of her trip. But on the other hand she could give them the highlights. The same information in less time. That meant she still get a few hours of rest until dinner was served. Neato! So Marianna started to tell them how everything began. At least the part where she let Rath see another side of her.

**Library at the same time**

Larek was pacing the floor like a trapped animal. From one side to the other and back again. Zan was trying to follow him with his eyes, but at one time he got dizzy and stopped it. Now he was reading the title at the side of the books. Some seemed to be really interesting and others were just plain boring, or at least according to the cover. He didn´t understand how someone could spend hours with the nose in some book and read what a person wrote. Except the book was about important things that were nesecarry for their future.

" How can you be so calm? I´m on the brink to climb up the wall and you´re reading the titles of books!", Larek was acting like they were criminals and waited for the verdict for their crime. He was extremly nervous and played with the ring on his forefinger all the time.

Zan turned to his friend and eyed him carefully. Why did he act so strange? They just wanted to know about the love bite Rath got from Marianna. They wouldn´t learn the mystery of life, dammit! " Relax will you, your driving me insane".

Larek lifted his arms like he wanted to strangle Zan when the door to the library opened with a squeaking noise. Immediately Zan and Larek turned to it and saw Rath with a big smile on his face standing there. He finally realised what just happened and what it meant for his future.

" Who put the smile on your face?", Larek pushed Zan aside and went to Rath. Finally he would the answers he was waiting for so long. Ok since a few hours, but to his defence he had no patience at this things. Maybe he could charm a few dirty details from his friend and learn some new tricks by the way.

Rath faced his old buddy. " My father".

Larek and even Zans eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Either they would hear something kinky, which they didn´t want to know or they misunderstood him. " Ewwww".

" Not like you think, morons. I just got my new armour as the leading commander of the army", it sounded even better when he said it loud.

" That´s great", he was really happy for his friend, but they weren´t here to talk about something trivial such like a promotion. " Now tell us how you got the hickey".

Rath should have been surprised that Larek just wanted to know what really happened in the three days alone with Marianna, but he wasn´t. Contrary to Zan he had no patience and no tact. One of the many reasons why he was one of his best friends. " Why do you think I will tell you anything?".

" Come on, old buddy of mine. I have no love life and I want to know what it´s like to be with a woman".

Now Zan felt a tad bit insulted. After all he was with a woman and Larek seemed to have no interest to know anything about that. " Hey. I have a girlfriend and you never asked me about some details".

" Yeah, because you´re boring. If I need a few tips to get rid of my food then I´ll ask you", like Larek wanted the details of their sweet and happy relationship. It was bad enough to see, but to actually hear everything. No, that was a nightmare he wanted to prevent.

Zan glared at Larek. " What do you mean by that?".

Before he could open his mouth to say something indiscreetly, Rath jumped in. " What he meant is that you and Ava have a relationship that makes us all sick just by watching you two" Ok that was not better than what Larek would have probably said.

" We´re not that bad", what was wrong with showing their affection towards each other? They were in love and didn´t need to hide that. Besides they were almost husband and wife.

Larek rolled his eyes. Not that bad! He just said that because he couldn´t see himself. They were scary at times and other times it was just disgusting. " Alright my bad. But we´re not here to discuss your love life", Larek turned to Rath. " We´re here to discuss yours".

" I don´t have a love life", after he received two unbelievable looks from his friends he continued. " Really. That mark on my throat is just a bite from an animal".

Larek wanted to laugh out loud. What kind of story was that? He was bitten by something! Who was he kidding? " You have to show me that animal, because I want to be bitten by it too".

Zan nodded in agreement with Larek. It was just to impossible to believe. Besides what animal would leave such a big red mark without hurting the spot? It was definitely a hickey and he knew who left it there. " Give it up. You´re not fooling anyone with your lame story. Tell us the truth".

Rath sighed extra loud. What could he still say? " Ok. But you have to promise me that you keep that to yourself", Zan and Larek both nodded eagerly". Alright. It all started with the treasure...".

**Mariannas room after dinner**

Marianna was standing at the window and watched the scenery outside, at least the part she could still regnorize. The suns were in the process to disappear completely behind the big mountains and just a orange glimmer was illuminating the land. The dinner tonight was different than every other she had so far. It wasn´t bad, absolutely not, but for the first time she really felt like part of the family. Abidale was asking every few seconds if she and Rath were alright, Mael was loudly talking about the things he would do when he wasn´t leading commander anymore, King Salem and Queen Lutezia just listened and made a few suggestion here and there, Ava and Vilandra giggled everytime they looked at Rath, while Zan was blushing when his view met Mariannas. It was like a normal dinner with a normal family. Something she never had with her own family. Suddenly she saw movement out of the corner of her eyes. It looked like Vilandra was speaking with a boy. It must be this ominous Davico Vilandra was always talking about. But she couldn´t be sure, because he was in the shadows and hard to identify. Marianna tried to look closer, when a strong feeling hit her. A feeling she always associated with her father. It felt like all the warmth was gone instantly and in its place was just this coldness and hate. Her heart started beating fast and her whole body shook with fear. Just when she thought it would crush her, two strong arms was embracing her from behind.

" What are you looking at", Rath had sneaked in her room and saw her looking intently out of the window. When he was near her he could feel a strong vibe of fear coming from her. But why?

Marianna startled for a moment. She didn´t notice Rath coming into her room. " Just Vilandra with someone", she turned around in Raths arms and saw in his eyes. " What do you actually know about the guy she´s seeing?".

Rath was surprised about the question. Why did she want to know that? " His name is Davico and he´s new here. Why you´re asking?".

" I just want Vilandra to be safe, that´s all. I have a bad feeling about him", and her feelings never let her down so far. Except for the thing with her father, but that wasn´t entirely her fault. After all it was her father and no matter how cruel he was, she had loved him.

Rath was sure that it wasn´t all. There was something in Mariannas eyes that bothered him. Something that said there was to it than she let on. But he knew that she wouldn´t tell him what was bothering her if he asked, that´s the reason why he dropped the topic. After all he wasn´t here to talk about Vilandra and her new boyfriend. " Don´t care about Vilandra. She´s old enough to know what she´s doing".

" Maybe you´re right", Marianna knew that it wouldn´t bring anything if she worried about everything. She just hoped that Vilandra was smart enough to be careful. Sometimes there was more than meets the eye. And she didn´t want that someone hurt her, she was like a sister now. " By the way. What are you doing in my room?".

Rath pulled her tighter to his body and gave her his come hither- look, which Marianna had to laugh about. " I can´t sleep alone anymore. My bed is so cold without you to warm me".

" Oh poor Baby. Maybe you should sleep in mine then", Marianna took his hand and lead him to her bed. Carefully she threw the cover back and waited till Rath was comfortable lying on the mattress, before she joined him. Within a few minutes they both fell asleep. Tightly interwined with each other.

TBC


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22 Calm before the storm**

The next morning the whole castle was a madhouse. Servants and other attendants were fast speeding through the corridors, suppliers were bringing boxes of food, drinks and decorations. A handfull of gardeners were trimming the garden outside and the greens in front of the palace. And in the midst of all that stood Queen Lutezia together with Abidale. There were barking orders or pointing at places they wanted something to stand. Marianna, Rath, Ava, Vilandra and Zan took shelter when they heard the first order being yelled at someone and were now hiding in the library. Despite the distance between the the ball room and the library they could still hear the voices of their mothers. Everytime they gave a ball it was the same. One day before the event everything had to be delievered, the furniture moved and the decoration at its place. The garden had to look pretty, which was kinda stupid, because nobody paid attention to it. And the kids were trying to get ouf the way or they had to help in some form or another. They tried to avoid that since they helped one time and everything ended in a disaster and many yelling. Marianna could understand that in a way, because her mother was like that, too.

" Why are they starting today? The ball isn´t until tomorrow after all".

Vilandra smiled at Marianna. The girl had still a lot to learn if she wanted to survive here. " Because my mother and my aunt have a tendency to change their minds in the last second. Therefore today everything will be set and tomorrow they still can fix the things they don´t like or want at another place".

" And why are we hiding in the library?", not that she minded, but it was a little weird.

Rath shook his head. She was just asking that, because she lived her not that long. If she would have been here longer, she would know it. " We tried to help one time. It wasn´t good".

" A total disaster", Zan agreed. He could still picture the whole fiasco. They started really optimistic and then everything changed for the worse. " Rath destroyed a expensive statue".

Rath glared at his friend. Like he was the only one. " Larek broke a few chairs".

" And Zan broke a table", Ava smiled at that. They were all klutzy that day and they still could hear the lecture they received after they cleaned up their mess.

Zan pointed a finger at her. " Hey. The table was not my fault. Vilandra shoved me and I fell on it".

" Great. Now that´s my fault. I just nudged you. It´s not my fault when you can´t stand on your feet", Vilandra wouldn´t admit it, but she really pushed him. She was angry that she had to do hard work and Zan was standing in her way.

Marianna saw that Zan wanted to threw something nasty at his sister. But before a war broke out between the siblings she jumped in. " Alright. I get it now. Helping bad, hiding good".

" Be quiet. I think I can hear steps outside", Rath gave everyone a sign to shut up for a moment. Then he listened really intently at the door. Yeah like he expected, someone was coming their way. " Hide everyone"

Immediately the others tried to find a place where they wouldn´t be seen. But it was a little difficult, because the room was big, but not fully furnitured. Ava and Vilandra were fighting for the spot behind the armchair, Zan and Rath almost knocked over a rack with old books and Marianna was calmly standing beneath the door, so when it opened she would disappear. When they saw the doorknob going down, Ava and Vilandra agreed to share the spot, Zan hid behind a old statue and Rath found a hidden place far away in the back. Everybody held their breath when the door finally opened and a person entered.

" Hello. Is anybody here?".

Vilandra was the first to look over the armchair and regnorize the intruder. " Larek dammit. I almost got a heartattack".

Larek watched how everyone was coming out of his hiding place. What did he do? He was just coming inside for godness sake. They were doing like he was the enemy. Geez, what was up with them? " Why are you hiding?", Then he seemed to remember something and his face changed to a grimace." Oh shit. Don´t tell me it´s the day before the ball again".

" No we´re just hiding because we discovered the joy of playing hide and seek with our parents", sometimes Larek was a little forgetful or he wanted to appear like that. Rath didn´t want to elaborate on that too much. But when it came to a beautiful woman, then he could remember everything to the smallest detail.

Larek wanted to tell Rath were he could put his sarcasm, when he changed his mind. It wasn´t worth to go in a fight right now. Besides Marianna was standing there and she wouldn´t like it. He didn´t want to hang in the air again. Instead he turned to Zan. " So what are we doing? I mean we can´t just stay here the whole day".

" I thought we could try to sneak out of the castle and go into town", maybe they would make it out of here without anybody noticing it.

Vilandra and Ava began to smile at Zans idea. They wanted to look for some accessoirs for their gowns anyhow. And they could introduce Marianna to the world of advantages for royalties. Rath however didn´t look convinced. Besides he didn´t want to waste his time with his sister and his friends. He looked at Marianna with a raised eyebrow. At first she didn´t know what he wanted from her. But then she noticed the passion in his eyes and everything cleared.

" Oh damn. I just remember that me and Rath still have something to discuss with Mael", Marianna slapped her forehead. Hopefully they would believe her lie and not ask too much question.

Rath stifled his laughter behind his hand and tried not to look too surprised about the smooth lie. " You´re right. We should probably go or we´ll be late". With that he took her hand and together they left the room.

The others watched after them with a knowing smile. Yeah they wanted to talk with Mael alright. Like they would believe that. Wherever they would go, there would be no talking at all. Not with those two judging after the hickey´s they got. They just wanted to find a private place where they could it. Larek and Vilandra saw to each other and nodded. Maybe it was time for another bet. A bet they would definitely win.

**The training room**

Marianna and Rath had finally found a room in which they would be alone for a while. They avoided the parents and no guards had seen them. Sometimes it came in handy to learn to be sneaky. Carefully they watched the corridor in every direction for the last time and then disappeared through the door.

Marianna felt like a kid that was trying to do a prank and was scared that someone might see it. " Do you think it´s safe?".

" Absolutely. Nobody will disturb us here today", Rath should know it. There was no training when a ball was the next day. His mother was worried that somebody could be hurt and she just wanted everybody to look perfect that evening. Hence the no training rule.

" Alright", Marianna didn´t waste more time and pulled Rath closer to her body. Then she gripped his face in her hands and kissed him.

Rath liked it when she was more aggressive. It was a turn on and he could say that she started it. Not that anybody would think he took advantage of her or something. She was a demanding little thing for such a small creature. She could fool anybody with her doll like face and her slender body, but inside she was a true warrior. That was what attracted her the most to him. They were more alike than it seemed on the outside. She just took what she wanted. And oh my was she taking him. Her small hands were slowly making her way into his pants and her mouth to his ear.

" What do you want me to do?", she breathed out and nibbled at his earlobe.

She was expecting that he could still phrase a sentence? Didn´t she know that he even forgot his own name at the moment. She was good, all his blood was pumping in another region, not where it was supposed to be. And her hand massaging his hard member was not helping either.

Marianna seemed to notice that he wasn´t in the position to answer her question. Poor boy, the male body hadn´t enough blood to provide for two working organs. Just when she wanted to suggest that she could give him a blowjob, the door to the training room flew open and Mael stormed in.

Immediately Marianna and Rath jumped apart. Both a little red in the face and with a guilty expression. Thankfully Marianna was standing in front of Rath and Mael wouldn´t notice the tent in his pants. But he didn´t seem to witness anything out of the ordinary anyway. " Finally. Abidale is looking for you".

Marianna´s eyes grew wide at that. Why was she looking for her? Hopefully she didn´t need to help out. " For me? Why?".

" To adjust the dress she brought for you", Mael saw it already and he knew that it would fit her perfectly. It looked like it was made for just her.

Marianna made a face. A dress? Why did she have to wear a dress? Why couldn´t she just wear the uniform like every other member of the royal army? Dammit, sometimes it sucked to be a girl! " I don´t want to wear a dress!".

" But you have to. You´re a princess", why did Mael knew that she would make such a fuss about it. The girl was as stubborn as Rath in some things and he shouldn´t be surprised, because Rath was the same when it came to dressing up for a ball.

" I´m also a soldier", nobody could force her to wear a dress. She would probably look like a nightmare in pink. She hated pink and lilac and every other colour that was associated with a girl. Now black, that was her colour.

Mael knew that he wouldn´t get far with the rational side. Maybe he should try the emotional. " Can´t you just do it? It would mean so much to me and my wife, please".

" Alright. But I can´t garantuee for nothing", damn conscience. She couldn´t resist such a plea. Also she could always say that she didn´t like the dress and wear something else instead.

" Thank you", Mael was glad that she caved in and he knew that she would like the dress. " Now shoo. The others are waiting in the dressing room".

What could Marianna do, besides obeying the order she got. With a wave of her hand she went out of the room and let Rath alone with his father.

Mael faced his son, now that they were alone. " What where you two doing in here?".

" Eh nothing", yeah like that was conviencing. He was stuttering like an idiot. Oh for godness sake he was a grown up and not a teenager anymore.

Mael laid his right arm around the shoulders of his son. It wasn´t like he didn´t know what happened here. After all he was young and in love too. " Don´t worry, that stays between us".

**On the westside of the planet**

King Khivar stood before his soldiers in the war room. He and his second in command had finally found out how they could outsmart the enemy. Now they were explaining their plan to their mens, in hope that they would understand the importance of the attack they wanted to do. Khivar had sent a few spies to the castle of King Salem so that they could snoop around and collect valuable information for them. So far they did their job expectably and nobody noticed that there were traitor amongst them.

" Our spies informed us that there are two guards who keep a close watch at the outer wall, two at the gateway and at least 5 in the castle itself", Khivar pointed with a stick at the corresponding places on the drawing from the palace of King Salem. " Furthermore there will be traps at the entrance, the garden, the windows and the dungeon".

A man with black short hair was lifting his arm. " What kind of traps?".

Khivar looked at his second in command and made a gesture that he should continue. At that a middle aged man with dark blond hair and light green eyes was stepping forward. " The traps at the entrance and the garden will be shields, which only appear when they feel the aura of evil. The traps at the windows and the dungeon react simultanous. As soon as someone tries to forcefully open a window or destroys it, the path down will be blocked through heavy steel grids".

" That means you have to be sneaky and careful to not attract attention until it´s too late", Khivar smiled over his whole face. Finally his victory was within his reach and nothing could stop him now. King Salem wouldn´t know what hit him. " At least for them".

The commander didn´t like the excitement in his kings eyes. It was one thing to fight against a enemy in a battle, but another to attack someone who didn´t even know what was happening. If Khivar wouldn´t have something on him he wouldn´t be here at all. But if he didn´t play after the rules he would lose his head and that literally. He just had one secret, which Khivar knew and now he had to pay for it. " Ok. Here is what we do".

While the commander talked about the tactics and who went which way, two guys in the back were talking to each other. One had light brown hair and brown eyes, the other black hair and grey eyes.

" How are you holding up?", the guy with the light brown hair asked.

The other guy looked straight ahead. What should he tell? That he was still sad and hurt. That was namely what he was feeling right now. " Like expected".

" It happend weeks ago. Let it go and try to move on. I´m also sad, but we can´t do anything to change it", the lighter one replied.

" Marius, you don´t know what it feels like to lose your soulmate, so I suggest you keep your oppinion to yourself!", the darker one whispered angrily. Why could nobody understand what he was going through at the moment? He lost his fiance and the love of his life. And no matter what the others told, he would never believe that his Marianna would kill her own mother.

Marius was taken aback from the intensity of the words from his friend. What did he think he was feeling? After all he grew up with Marianna and they were insearably. " Hey, I lost my best friend. She was like a sister to me".

" Yeah I noticed your misery. You´re doing like it doesn´t matter to you".

Marius was slowly getting angry. " She´s dead Lykus. It´s sad and we´re all suffering, but life goes on and so should we".

" I´m sorry. But I can´t do that. Not as long as I can still feel her", with that Lykus jumped to his feet and left the war room.

Marius watched after the retreating back his friend. A part of him understood Lykus, because he felt the lose of his best friend very deeply and he upbraided himself that he wasn´t there to help her. But he also knew that he couldn´t change anything, if he would mourn after her. Besides what should he do? If someone would notice that he didn´t believe the lies that was spreading around, the king would probably kill him like he killed his own wife. No he didn´t want to end this way. Someday he would see Marianna again and then he would apologize to her. But until then he did what was expected of him. Marius looked around to see if someone realized that one soldier was missing. Thankfully nobody noticed the dramatic exit of him. The commander was just finished explaining his formation for the attack, which would happen soon. The king was standing beneath him and seemed to be happy, because usually he never smiled like that. When the commander gave the order for dismissal Marius was the first out of the door. He needed to talk with Lykus, after all they were friends and they were facing a war. He didn´t want to do that with his friend mad at him.

Khivar, the commander and a young boy with a hardened expression on his face, the same hair colour and eyes like the king were the only ones who stayed back.

" Do you know what you have to do?", Khivar wanted to be sure that his son was grasping the importance of his work. He was the trump card in this battle.

Nikolai smirked cockily. Who did his father think he was talking to? Of course he knew what he had to do. " Don´t worry father. You will be proud of me".

Khivar patted the shoulder of his son lovingly. " That´s what I wanted to hear. Now I want to have a word with Hewik. Alone".

Nikolai nodded at his father and made his way out of the room. Soon his day would come and he would be celebrated like a hero. Everybody would bow before him and kiss the ground where he walks on. Life was slowly starting to go his way.

Hewik was a bit confused. What did Khivar want to talk about with him? He said everything already. The plan was ready and everyone knew their duty. What more could he want from him?

" I just want to be sure that you´re absolutely certain about the attack. You know that it wouldn´t be healthy for you if you fail", Khivar didn´t care about that. Hewik would die one way or another. It didn´t matter if the attack would be successfull or not. He betrayed his king and he had to pay for it.

Hewik noticed the look in Khivars eyes and for the first he was afraid of him. He knew that twinkle and it wasn´t good. It meant he would die anyway. " Of course, your majesty".

Khivar, satisfied with the answer, went out the door without a word. After all he still had to prepare a speech when he was ruler of the whole planet. With what should he start?

While Khivar was trying to find the right beginning for his speech, Hewik went to the window and watched the scenery outside. And like always when he was alone, his thoughts were drifting to Marianna. He still couldn´t believe that she was dead and would never come back. It had been a shock when he heard of her death and what she was accused of. Marianna was much, but no murderer and everyone who really knew her wouldn´t believe that crap. She had loved her mother above everything and she would have never harmed her. No, she was the kindest soul he ever came in contact with and she was always friendly to everyone. Slowly Hewik wiped a few tears from his face. It still pained him that she was gone. He had loved her, more than his own life. And he wanted her to be his follower someday. But he could forget it, now he had to look for another one. However hard it would be, because nobody could replace his best soldier. Not Nikolai and not any other of his men.

**King Salems palace**

The whole castle was finally quiet again. The servants and the attendants had done their work, the suppliers brought all their things and the gardners were finished with the garden. The ball room was really nice decorated and the furniture was stowed away in another room. Everyone was tired now and on their way to their bedrooms. Marianna successfully survived the fitting of her dress. It wasn´t as bad as she thought. At least it wasn´t pink or any other feminin colour. Actually it was a beautiful green and matched the colour of her eyes. The others were all in awe when she tried the dress on. Thankfully she had almost the same measure as Ava and the dress didn´t need to be changed. Ok she whined because it was a bit too tight, but everyone told her that it had to be that way. How anybody could wear something like that everyday was a mystery to her. She liked her clothes perfectly fitting, but it shouldn´t squeeze her entrails together. Ava and Vilandra had the same dress, only Avas was blue and Vilandras was red. That made her feel better, that she wasn´t the only one who had to suffer tomorrow. Althrough they were used to this getting dolled up, in contrast to her. But she would be a good girl tomorrow, even if it was just for a few hours, which wouldn´t kill her. At least she hoped so. Marianna wondered how Rath would react when he´ll see her dressed like a princess and behaving like that, too. He´ll probably ask who she was and what she had done to the real Marianna. Yeah that´s sounding like Rath. Ava and Vilandra teased her the whole time about him. They even tried to copy his reaction and what he would say when he saw her in the dress. It was hilarious to watch these two with their dramatics. For a few hours she forgot the feeling she had all day long. But that changed as soon as she stepped a foot in her room. Immediately the feeling was there again and it seemed to be stronger than before. When she first noticed it, she thought it was an upset stomach or she didn´t stand something in the food, but after a while she realized that it couldn´t be it, because her head was spinning slightly and for a moment she thought she saw a flash of her fathers war room. Something was going on, but she had no idea what or what the flash meant actually. All she knew was that it wasn´t good and it would bring pain and even death. Marianna went to her window and opened it. Maybe the fresh air would clear her head a little and the bad thoughts would disappear. Slowly she bent her torso forward and propped her ellbows on the ledge. Then she laid her head on her hands and watched the sky.

" Everytime I´m coming into this room, you´re looking out of the window".

Marianna turned slowly around. This time she wasn´t so surprised that Rath was in her room. In fact she expected him already. " It´s calming to watch the course of nature".

" And I thought you were trying to get a look at Vilandras new boyfriend again", Rath was a bit worried about Marianna. Her emotions were such a chaos that even someone with no empath powers could feel them.

Marianna smiled slightly at him. " No. That´s the least of my worries at the moment".

Now Rath got really curious. The least of her worries? Why did she worry at all? " And what is your biggest worry at the moment?".

" The storm that is coming", Marianna turned back to watch the sky again.

Rath stretched his head out of the window and observed the sky. But as far as he could see, there were no indication that a storm would be coming. " What storm? I don´t see anything".

Marianna sighed really loudly. " Because I didn´t talk about the weather".

" What is bothering you? I felt so much fear coming from you last night and now I got the same, only a littler strong this time. You know that you can tell me anything, even if it sounds crazy", Rath embraced her and pulled her tightly against him. Slowly he stroked her head with his right hand while the other kept her trapped in his hug.

Marianna relaxed instantly when she felt the strong arms of Rath holding her. It was strange that he just had to be near her and she felt safer. " It´s probably nothing. But since this morning I got the feeling that something bad is coming. And I don´t know what it is or what it means or even if it´s something to worry about at all".

" Maybe you´re just nervous because of the ball?", that was a thought that had to be considered to. After all if something dangerous was near them, wouldn´t be he the first to notice anything? He was an empath and most of the time he knew things beforehand.

Marianna had thought about that, too. And to an extent it was possibly true. But if that was the case, why did her mind tell her a different story? " Maybe. But what if it´s not? What if this feeling should tell me something and I don´t realize what it means? Or if I ignore it and something happens? I couldn´t live with myself if I could have prevented it."

Rath took her face in both hands and made her look into his eyes. " Nothing bad will happen. I promise you. Not under my watch".

" I wish I could be so sure of that like you", Marianna laid her head against his chest again and listened to his heartbeat. It was soothing her soul and her mind.

Rath smiled at the back of her head. She was finally calming down a bit. But it had probably to do with the fact that she was sleepy now. Carefully he lifted her off the ground and carried her to the bed. And strangly she didn´t say anything or complained that she could walk alone. When he put her down on the mattress, he shred his own clothes and laid himself besides her. Then he took the blanket and covered them with it. Within a few minutes Marianna was sound asleep. Rath held her close to his body and caressed her face with his index finger, before he kissed her forehead.

" Don´t worry. Nobody will harm you as long as I´m near. They have to go through me first before they can hurt you. I swear".

TBC


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23 The Ball**

Marianna was standing in a dark corridor. Just a few candles were throwing shadows on the stonewalls that were surrounding her. A light breeze let her tremble slightly and goosebumps appear all over her body. Carefully she turned in all direction to see if she would regnorize where she was or if someone was here with her. But to her dissapointment she noticed that she was alone and couldn´t identify in which corridor she was standing. A feeling of fear was slowly arising in her and let her heart beat a little stronger, her breath come out a little faster and her hands sweating. Slowly she eyed both ways to decide which would get her out of this scary place. Either she took the right or the left path. Just when she looked to the right she was blinded by a bright white light. Instinctively she lifted her right arm to protect her eyes. When she was sure that it was safe to watch, she took her arm down and detected to her surprise a door. A door which wasn´t there a few minutes ago. Somewhat confused and alarmed she moved to it.

" Hello! Hello! Is anybody here", her voice was really loud and seemed to echo through the whole building.

For a few moments Marianna stopped and listened intently if she could hear a reply. But nothing was coming. There was just the sound of her breathing and the beating of her heart. Just as she wanted to continue her way to the door a deep frightening voice was startling her.

" You can´t save them. You can´t save them like you couldn´t save your own mother".

Marianna watched around her to look where the voice was coming from. But there wasn´t anyone either behind nor in front of her. " What are you talking about? Whom can´t I save?".

" You will see them die and I will enjoy every moment of it".

Marianna glanced at the ceiling above her. " Who are you?"

The only response she got was laughter, so dark and cold that it send shivers up and down her spine. It seemed to come from all sides now and got louder. She never heared something horrible like that and her fear arose instantly again. Her heart felt like it wanted to spring out of her chest, her breath was going faster and faster and she thought she would throw up every moment.

" Marianna!".

" Please help us!".

Marianna startled. That were the voices of Rath and Vilandra. Quickly she turned to the door again and saw that it was open. And there she catched sight of the owner of the voices. They were hurt, their clothes were dirty and torn at some places. Both were stretching their arms out to her.

" Rath. Vilandra", no that had to be a trick of her mind. They couldn´t be here. They should be at home safe and sound and not here in this hell with her. Marianna shook her head to make the picture disappear. But when she looked there once more, it didn´t change. In that moment she realized that it was no imagination and her friends needed her help. " Hang on! I´m coming".

However her feet didn´t move from the spot, no matter how much she strained her legs to work. Desperately she looked down to figure out the reason her feet wouldn´t cooperate with her. Shocked she noticed that the ground beneath her had changed into black slime and was pulling her under.

" Help! Somebody please help me!" Marianna struggled to get her feet out of there, but the more she moved the faster she sunk into the pulp. Tears were streaming down her face and were leaving stains of blood on her cheeks. Just when she gave up the fight, because she realized that it was hopeless anyway and the only thing that wasn´t in the slime were her arms and her head, something grasped her hand.

" Don´t worry. I´ve got you", Marianna was never so relieved to see Raths smiling face looking down at her. With ease he pulled her out of the pulp and pressed her tightly at his body.

Marianna clung to him like her life would depend on it. Her body shook with sobs that were threatening to choke her. " I´m so glad you´re here. It was so horrible".

" I told you that nothing bad would happen as long as I´m here. I will always be there to save you", Rath tenderly stroked her back and tried to calm her down.

Marianna leaned her head back a little to look Rath in the eyes. " Do you promise me that?".

Rath wiped the tears from her face with his right hand. " Of course. Besides it´s just a dream".

Marianna leaped up from the mattress with her upperbody and opened promptly her eyes. The first things she regnorized was Raths worried face in front of her. He was holding her at her shoulders and seemed to have tried to wake her. Then she realized that she was still in her bed and everything was just a bad dream.

" Are you alright?", Rath looked at her like she finally lost it. And who could blame him? She must be looking like a crackpot right now.

Marianna rubbed her face with her hands, althrough it was a bit of a challenge, because her hands were shaking like mad. " Yeah. It was just a nightmare".

Rath seemed not to buy it. He leaned closer to her and saw deep in her eyes. " That had to be a hell of a nightmare. You even had me scared with your screaming".

" I´m sorry. I didn´t want to do that", Marianna could finally shake the fear from her. She told herself that it was just a dream and it didn´t have to mean anything. It was probably the result of her bad feeling she got last night.

Rath took her right hand and kissed the back of it. " It´s alright. Vilandra tried others things to wake me. And believe me it was worse than this".

Marianna managed a small smile at that. " Really? I can´t believe that. Vilandra is such a nice person".

" Yeah, because you know her just for a short while. I grew up with her and know what she´s capable of".

Marianna had to ask. It was a question that was bothering for a some time now. " Did you never feel more than friendship with her? I mean she´s a beautiful girl".

Rath shuddered at that thought alone. Vilandra was family to him and she would never be more than that. " I love her, there´s no doubt about it. But I´m not in love with her. And I never will. She´s more like a annoying little sister. Why you´re asking?".

" I just wanted to be sure, that´s all", Marianna observed how Rath´s hand was perfectly fitting hers. It was like this was meant to be. Like her hand was only made to be in Rath´s. A perfect match.

Rath became aware that Marianna was miles away with her thoughts. Didn´t she know that to much thinking wasn´t good? " You don´t have to worry about Vilandra and me. There´s never nor will there be anything between us".

" My heart knows that, but my head isn´t so smart yet", Marianna didn´t know why she even had that thought at all. And why just now? Wasn´t it already too late to worry about such a thing?

Rath started to smile. " Listen to your heart. It always tells you the truth".

Marianna faced him a little stunned. That was the sweetest thing she ever heard. And then from a boy who thought that romance was something for weaklings and sissy boys like Zan. Wait till she told that Vilandra and Ava. They both had the opinion that Rath had no romantic bone in his body. Boy were they wrong. He just hadn´t found the right girl then. Marianna wanted to throw him down and have her wicked way with him, when a knock came at her door. Immediately Rath jumped out of bed and hid under it. Marianna tried to do like she just woke up.

" Come in".

The door slowly opened and Vilandras smiling face stretched through the gab. Obviously she was a morning person and extremly happy. How Marianna hated that kind of person, especially when she didn´t sleep well the night before. " Did I wake you?".

" No. I was up already", Marianna faked a loud yawn and rubbed her face. Then she leaned against the headboard behind her. "What can I do for you?".

Vilandra finally stepped carefully into the room and walked the few steps to the bed, where she let herself slump on it. Startled she jumped off it, when she heard a grunting noise coming from it. " What was that?".

" Dammit Vilandra. I think you smashed my nose", Rath emerged from his hiding place under the bed and rubbed his nose furiously. The glare which was send in her direction would have made other people run for their lifes.

Vilandra was slightly upset. Why was everything always her fault? " Excuse me? How should I know that your under Mariannas bed? By the way what are you doing in her room actually?

" That´s none of your business", Rath bend slightly down to give Marianna a kiss on her mouth. " I´ll see you later" With that Rath left the room.

Vilandras smile that was slowly gracing her face could have lit the whole planet, if not more. Marianna faced her again, after watching Raths sexy little butt walk out the door. Oh no that face didn´t mean anything good. It meant that she had a few question to answer and she didn´t have the nerv to play 20 questions right now.

" Well say it. I know you want to".

Instead of saying anything Vilandra jumped on the bed, pulled Marianna to her and embraced her like she wanted to squeeze the air out of her. Marianna was shocked for a minute or two before she

held on tightly herself. She didn´t understand why Vilandra was doing it, but it felt nice and she tried to enjoy every moment if it. She never knew how nice it was to have a girl as a friend, all females she knew were just snobby little princess or too afraid to speak with her. That was actually the reason why she rather hung out with boys. They were neither afraid of her nor did care about their behaviour.

" You have to tell my everything. I want to know every little detail", Vilandra was so excited. Finally everything was going the right way. Rath had found someone and so did she. And her parents seemed to have realized that they couldn´t force their kids to something they didn´t want. After all they wanted to meet her boyfriend and they wouldn´t do it, if they would have something against it, would they?

Marianna parted from Vilandra and looked at her a little surprised. " Every detail?".

" Ok. Not everything. After all I want to sleep tonight without having nightmares", Vilandra didn´t have the wish to imagine Rath and Marianna mating like animals or doing things she couldn´t even think about.

Marianna pretended to think about it, before she bent a little forward. " Alright. I´ll tell you".

**Midday in the ballroom**

The last preparations were in the process. A few servants were almost running through the halls and were carrying trays of food or something else. The male servants were arranging the tables on which the food would be stored. The female servants had the order to look if everything was alright and clean. Marianna was just on her way to the dressing room, when she noticed the hustle and bustle in the room through the open door. Curious like she was, she stepped into it and took a look around. Everything was perfect. The ruby coloured drapes were matching the table cloths, the lusters were sparkling like they were new, the beautiful flowers were execuding a sweet scent, the tables were standing at the big windows and the food on it was looking mouthwatering. Marianna wondered if anybody would notice it when she took something of it. Slowly she sneaked quietly straight to the table to steal a bit of the shnit ( canapé ). But before she even came in close proximity of it, a voice was startling her.

" What are you doing here?".

Marianna winced appelled. Damn she was busted. Smiling sheepishly she turned around and detected that it was just one of the servants. Corly to be exact. " I just wanted to see how everything is processing".

Corly lifted one eyebrow at that. " And I thought you wanted to pilfer something from the food table".

" No. I would never do something like that", Marianna heard that the excuse even sounded lame in her ears. And judging after Corly´s face she thought so too. " Alright. You got me. But I can´t help it when it looks so wonderful".

Corly was astounded. Usually the lady´s of the castle didn´t eat anything the whole day to fit in their dresses. But Marianna seemed to be different than the princess she ever came in contact with. Maybe that was the reason she like her so much. " Tell you what. You take something and I pretend to not have seen it"

" Thank you. You´re a livesafer", Marianna went to the table and took a handful of shnits, which one of it immediately dissapeard in her mouth. Abidale told her that she wasn´t allowed to eat before the ball. But she didn´t care, she was hungry and therefore she had to eat or she could get really nasty.

Corly watched all sides to see if anyone noticed something. But thankfully they were all too busy to realize that someone was here who wasn´t allowed to be here actually. " Don´t you have to be at the dressing room now?".

" Technically yes. But I´ll try to stall as long as possible. I hate to dress up and wear a gown", Marianna stuffed the remain of her dinner in her mouth. Hopefully the dress wouldn´t fit anymore then and she had to wear something else instead.

Corly´s eyes widened to twice her size. Why didn´t she like to wear beautiful gowns and do your hair and everything else? Since she could remember she envied the girls who were born rich and could afford all the expensive gowns. Sometimes she dreamed to be a princess and do all the things she always wanted to do. But all she had was a little bed in little room she shared with her mother. " Why? It must be wonderful to dress up and dance all night with a beautiful boy".

" If you think it´s so great, then you can take my place instead", Marianna had no objections. She could use her time better than flounce through the room, smile shyly at people she didn´t know and listen to boring topics like a mindless little dolly.

Corly directed her eye contact to the ground to hide her embarassement. " I could never do that. I´m just a servant".

" And? You´re a person like everybody else. If you would wear a expensive gown, made your hair, put on a little make up, nobody would notice that you´re not of noble heritage", Marianna hated that small minded thinking of some rich people, who thought they were worth more than others. She had just two criteria. Either she like the person or she didn´t, no matter if rich or poor. Period.

Corly raised her head a little with a shy smile on her face. That was the nicest thing she ever heard, at least directed at her. Just as Corly wanted to thank Marianna for her beautiful words, she saw Rath entering the ball room. And his expression wasn´t exactly the friendliest. In an instant she tried to look really busy.

Marianna wondered if she said something wrong, because Corly just turned away from her without saying anything. Then she regnorized a reflection she knew rather well in one of the windows. Smiling brightly she reversed. " Hey. What are you doing here?".

" I could ask the same question. I was sent out to get you", Rath skipped purposely the warning about cutting something vital off of his body. That was too humilitating for him. Threatened from four women was not good for his reputation.

Marianna didn´t think that she wasted so much time, that someone had to fetch her actually. " I was just talking to Corly".

" Who?".

Marianna looked at Rath like he was stupid. Didn´t he know the names of the servants? " Corly. One of the servants?", but nothing was clicking in his brain or what he called a brain. He just watched her with a confused expression. Marianna went to Corly and dragged her to Rath. " That´s Corly".

Rath eyed her for a few seconds, but she was keeping her head down and he didn´t regnorize her, or at least the part he could see. " Great. Let´s get going. Everybody is waiting for you".

" You could at least say hello. This is common courtesy", sometimes Marianna asked herself if he either failed the class who teached manners or if he actually showed up at all.

Rath thought that steam would come out of his ears every moment . He would probably die of a heartattack with her. But what didn´t one do out of love and to prevent a fight. Slowly Rath directed his gaze at Corly. " Hello". Then he turned to Marianna again. " Satisfied. Good. Then we can go".

Marianna shook her head. He would never learn it no matter how much time she would invest in it. But that was alright, as long as he didn´t take this attitude with her. Marianna send a apologetic glance at Corly, before she made her way out of the room with Rath.

Corly watched after them longily. How much she wished to be in Mariannas shoes right now. Rath was her crush since she could remember. But he never acknowledge her existence. Not once did he look at her directly or spoke one word. She was invisible to him and that would probably never change. And now more than ever. Corly could still hear them both bicker. Something about Marianna eating a tiny bit and she was denying it vehemently. Until Rath pointed out that she still had some remains of the shnits at her mouth. That was the last thing she could hear before they vanished out of her sight. Sadly Corly applied her attention to her work again. After all she was not of royalty.

**Dressing room women**

Marianna was dreading to enter the room, althrough she knew that nothing bad (at least not to others) happened in there. Slowly she opened the door and stepped in. Immediately eight arms were pulling her deeper in the room and pushed her in a chair, which was standing in front of a dressing table with a large mirror. Somewhat shocked Marianna could only stare when the other women started to apply Make up to her face and brush her hair.

" Where were you? We were waiting for you", Abidale held a little can of powder in her left hand and dabbed it all over her face with the right.

Marianna almost had to sneeze because some of it went into her nose. But thankfully she could prevent it in time. " I was looking at the decoration in the ballroom and forgot the time. Sorry".

Vilandra rolled up a few strands of Mariannas hair and pinned them with small brackets. " And was Rath mad that he had to find you?".

" What do you think? Or do you know him any different than on the brink to strangle someone?", Marianna had to roll her eyes. She knew that it was wrong to tell Vilandra everything. Now she made comments in front of her mother and her aunt. That was so not good.

Queen Lutezia hid her smile by searching for the lip gloss, althrough she knew where it was. " Oh I don´t know. But when he´s with you he´s pretty likeable".

" I didn´t notice it", Marianna had the qualms that the queen knew something and she didn´t want that. In the inside she started to quiver and had to struggle to not show her condition on the outside. Hopefully nobody noticed anything.

Abidale kneeled beside her and laid a hand on her arm. She waited until she had full attention before she spoke. " We know that there is something between Rath and you".

Marianna had to repress the urge to jump off and run away. Her heart was beating like crazy and her hands began to shake. But she tried to keep calm and to carry it off well. " I don´t know what you´re talking about".

" Yes you know. We´re maybe old but we´re not blind. We saw it before the both of you noticed it", Queen Lutezia was against it at first. But now she was happy that her daughter and her nephew found their significant other. Even if it wasn´t the one they choose for them. The happiness of their children was more important than tradition or politics.

Marianna saw in the eyes of a smiling Queen before she turned her gaze to Abidale beside her. " Are you mad?".

" We´re just mad that you tried to hide it in front of us and didn´t trust us enough to be honest. But otherwise no. Why should I be mad that my son found someone that makes him happy? Besides you´re part of the family and we love you", Abidale could partly understand her. She didn´t want to hurt anyone, especially not the family, who was so kind to take her in. But she should know them better now and know that the kids couldn´t hide anything in front of their parents. Especially something obvious like that.

Marianna was really touched that she was treated like a member of the family and she was glad that her secret was finally out. She didn´t think she could have kept it up any longer without making mistakes. " Thank you. That means so much to me. And I feel the same".

" Alright. Now that the whole melodrama is over, we should continue", Vilandra didn´t plan to spend the night in here. And she wanted to do something to cover her nervousness. Today her family would meet her boyfriend and she was close to lose her cool.

Marianna tried to wipe a few tears from her eyes without smearing up her make up. Then she made herself comfortable on the chair she was sitting on and let the women work on her.

**At the foot of the stairs**

All the men of the royal family were standing well dressed in a line. King Salem and Zan were wearing their royal cape, which was in the colours of the kingdom, namely green and silver and their growns, which were adorned with diamonds. Rath and Mael were dressed in their uniform, which contained dark blue pants with the matching jacket. Around the hip was a white belt with their weapons in it. The hands were in white gloves and their feet in black polished boots.

" Can I undo the first button, I can´t breath in this thing", Rath was tearing at his jacket the whole time they were standing there and were waiting for the women to appear. It was the same everytime he had to dress up for a ball.

Mael threw his son a nasty glare. Why couldn´t he stop the whining? It didn´t work anyway. Not today and not the other times before. " You won´t change anything. Do I make myself clear?".

" Yes father".

Zan leant closer to Rath until he could talk to him without somebody hearing it. " Why you´re trying that everytime? You know it doesn´t work".

" Maybe someday I´ll be lucky", it could happen. But that could be when he was too old to enjoy his victory.

King Salem took a look at his timer and noticed how late it was actually. " Where are they? The first guest are about to come".

Just as the sentence was finishd the voices of the women was floating through the halls and down the stairs. Obviously someone wasn´t happy with the choice of clothes. She was complaining that her dress was to tight and she probably would destroy it or make it dirty, the torture tools on her feet were squashing her toes and she would fall on her face with them.

Rath started to laugh, when he regnorized that it was Marianna who whined the whole time. She was obviously in the same mood as him if not worse. That made him feel a little better about tonight and he couldn´t wait to tease her with it. But as fast as his smile came it disappeared when he saw Marianna. She was absolutely beautiful and he forgot to breath for a moment. He could only stare as she descent the stairs with her right hand holding the bannister and the left the skirt. Her dress was perfectly fitting. The green was matching the colour of her eyes. The bodies was accentuating her petite figure and the cleavage was just showing a bit of her breasts. The skirt was floorlength and seemed to move with every step. Her shoulders were bare, because the dress was strapless and gave sight of her slender throat, which was decorated with the dog tags. Her face was glowing. Althrough she was a true beauty the light make up was emphrasing it more. Her hair was in light curls and the side parts were held with two golden clasps. And on top of her head was a silver tiara with emeralds. Rath didn´t pay attention that there were still four other women with her, he just had eyes for Marianna. No matter what would still happen in his life, this moment would be forever in his mind.

" One laugh and you´re dead. I´m serious", Marianna needed all her effort to survive the many steps with this things at her feet. And then she couldn´t use a joke at her expense. She felt uncomfortable like it was and a sarcastic comment would make it worse.

Rath was still speechless because of Mariannas beauty. Until he got a nudge from his father to remind him that it was rude to gape at somebody like that. " You look absolute gorgeous tonight".

" Really? Do you really think so?", ok she had to admit that she loved the dress. It was beautiful and the kind of gown she would have choosen for herself. Maybe it wasn´t so bad to behave like a princess for one evening.

Rath took her hand and hinted a kiss on it, something he learned from Zan. Then he looked deep in Mariannas eyes while a little smile appeared on his face. " I don´t think so. I know so".

Vilandra and Ava meanwhile were observing them with their heads bent together. They couldn´t believe what they heard coming from Rath´s mouth. The planet was doomed because Rath grew a romantic bone!

" Oh my godness! My brother is possessed!", Ava acted like she was shocked. She knew him for a long time, obviously as sister, but she never saw him act so much like Zan.

Vilandra linked her arm with Avas. " He´s not possessed, he´s in love".

" I hope he remembers that when he starts to tease me about Zan", Ava was sick of Rath´s sarcastic comments about the love puppy stage Zan seemed to be in. Now he couldn´t say something, because he acted just like that, too.

Rath, who listened to the conversation, turned to Vilandra and his sister. And for the first time he noticed that they both were wearing the same dress like Marianna. Just Vilandras was red and Avas blue. But that wasn´t important right now. " I´m not as bad as Zan. He´s the king of all weaklings".

" Hey I heard that. I´m not that bad", Zan was offended. Ok he was a softie that much he could admit, but he wasn´t a weakling.

Before Rath could reply to that Abidale interfered. " Boys not now. The first guest will be arriving soon".

Mael and King Salem sent their sons nasty glares before they took position at the entrance of the castle. After all they had to greet their guest personally like usual. The kids placed themself a little further away so that they didn´t had to listen how much they grew up and how beautiful they got. It was always the same, no matter if the last ball was just a few weeks ago or not. Like they changed over night. Thankfully that evening most of the guest ignored the royal children, because they found a new victim. Every woman was asking Marianna how she was doing and how sad they were that she had to go through something so horrible at her age. Other women were just complimenting her beauty before they dragged their husbands away, because they were ogling her. If Rath wouldn´t know Marianna better he would think that she was enjoying the attention. But he noticed that her forced smile was just an act. And it disappeared the moment they greeted the last guests.

" Now kids you can do whatever you want. But be warned. No nonsense", King Salem knew that they behaved most of the time. But he was rather save then sorry.

Just as the sentence was finished they disappeared in the mass of talking people. Before the night was through their parents wouldn´t see them again. It was actually like they were small children and enjoyed to not be under parental control anymore. Mael, Abidale, King Salem and Queen Lutezia decided to join in a few conversation until they would announce their news to the kingdom.

Marianna, Ava and Vilandra placed themself at a good position from where they could watch all the people. They made comments about the outfits, which ended almost everytime in a fit of laughter and the horrible hairstyle of a few noble ladies. Vilandra and Ava told Marianna the rumours about most of the guest and what was true or just a lie. The three had so much fun together, even without their escort. Althrough Vilandras boyfriend wasn´t there yet. Suddenly the a soft melody was drifting through the room. The orchestra, especially dedicated for this evening, finally began to play.

" My Lady, can I have this dance", Zan appeared in front of the girls and asked Ava for a dance. Quite the gentleman he bowed before her.

Ava giggled behind her hand. Zan was such a sweety sometimes. " Of course".

Vilandra and Marianna saw to each other and broke out in laughter. That was so disgusting to watch. They both looked after them how they floated to the other dancing people in the middle.

" Hey Gorgeous, would you pay me the compliment to dance with me", Marianna hadn´t noticed that there was one more. She turned to Larek, who looked really good enough to eat tonight with his uniform. He obviously found it funny to tease her, judging after the twinkle in his eyes.

" Only if you stop talking like an idiot".

Larek just shrugged, then he took Mariannas hand and guided her beneath Ava and Zan. There they started to dance.

Vilandra watched from the side how the others had their fun. For the first time she looked at the door to see if someone was coming. But to her disappointment it wasn´t the case. Slowly she looked at her timer and asked herself when Davico would finally arrive here. He was already too late and she started to doubt if he would appear at all.

" Do you know where Marianna is?", Rath pulled her out of her thoughts. He was standing beside her and seemed to look for her.

Vilandra pointed towards the mass of dancing people. " She´s dancing with Larek".

Rath turned around and saw them. They both seemed to have much fun together. At least judging from their smiling faces. Usually his jeaulousy would emerge at his picture, but not anymore. He granted his best friend this one dance. After all Marianna would be dancing with him the whole evening. Slowly he faced Vilandra. " So if Mariannas is already occupied, how about you dance with me?".

" Sorry, but I can´t. Davico just arrived. I´ll see you later", Vilandra took off like the devil himself was after her.

Rath looked after her retreating back. Great now he was standing there like an idiot. Hopefully nobody saw that embarrassing scene. Carefully he watched to all side, but everybody was too busy with talking or dancing that they didn´t notice anything. For a few seconds he just looked around the room, before he decided to save Marianna from Lareks killer foot, who was often trampling on her tender feet.

Rath went through the crowd and tapped on Lareks shoulder. " Can I take over?".

" Of course", Larek bent down to really kiss Mariannas hand. " Thank you for the dance" and then he made his way to the food table.

Rath pulled Marianna tightly against his body without saying a word and moved them a little. He hated to dance actually, but he made a exception tonight. Besides the song that just started was slow and therefore he didn´t need to move much.

_**This love  
This love is a strange love  
In that it can lift a love  
This love  
**_

" You didn´t strike me as a guy who knows how to dance", Marianna knew that they were just teetering from one side to the other. But it was nice to feel Rath so close to her. Even if he was still a little rigid.

Rath put on a smirk. " Usually I try to prevent it. But for you I let my priorities go for this evening".

_**This love  
I think I'm gonna fall again  
And ever when you held the hand  
And turn 'em in your fingers, love**_

" I feel so honoured", Marianna replied sarcasticly.

Rath detected to sarcasmus in her voice. " You should be. I´ve never danced with anybody willingly. I do that just for you".

_**This love  
Now rehearsed we stay, love  
Doesn't know it is love  
This love  
**_

" Alright. Thank you and now stop talking. I want to enjoy this moment", Marianna laid her head carefully on Rath´s chest and let her body carry with the melody.

Rath did what he was told for once and just listened to the music. He wanted to bring the time to a stand, so that he could be like that for an eternitiy. Here with Marianna in his arms and the big bad world outside.

_**This love  
Doesn't have to feel love  
Doesn't care to be love  
It doesn't mean a thing  
This love  
**_

Rath and Marianna moved slowly to the melody with their eyes closed and their minds in a state of absolute bliss. Everybody watched them. It seemed like they were alone and just needed each other to be happy.

_**  
This love loves love  
It's a strange love, strange love**_

This love  
This love  
This love is a strange love, strange love  
I'm gonna fall again love  
Doesn't mean a thing  
Think I'm gonna fall again  
This Love

When the song finally ended, Rath and Marianna didn´t realize it and just continued dancing. Until Corly called attention to that fact that everybody stopped. She just came by to serve the drinks, which she carried on her tray.

" Thank you. That would have been so awkward", Marianna turned to Corly. She seemed not to have too much fun right now.

Corly smiled at her. " Don´t worry. Nobody noticed it actually. How do like it so far?".

Marianna made a sore face. The beginning was cruel, but now it was getting better. " I imagined it worse".

" Do you want something to drink?", Corly stretched the tray with the drinks out to them. After all it was her work to do here.

Marianna shook her head. " No thank you. But maybe you should ask Rath".

Corly turned three shades of red darker when she faced Rath. But he just shook his head, too at her, before he turned his attention to something else.

Marianna noticed the reaction of Corly and tried to hide her laughter. It looked like someone was brought down by Rath´s charm. Damn and she thought she was the only one.

" I´ll have to go. Have fun", with that Corly disappeared from their sight.

Marianna smiled brightly at Rath. " Someone got a crush on you", she sing songed.

" Yeah. And that someone is you", Rath was glad that they were alone again. Hopefully nobody would disturb them anymore. He wasn´t here to make conversation with strangers.

Marianna stepped closer to him and her smile grew even wider. " It´s not me".

Rath entwined his arms around Mariannas hips and tried to keep her tightly at his body. " Who is it then?".

" Corly".

Rath got this weird expression again on his face. Who was she talking about? " Who?".

Marianna couldn´t believe it. She just told him who Corly was that afternoon. How oblivious could he be? " The girl that just offered you something to drink".

" Really. I didn´t notice anything", like he cared about who got a crush on him or not. He only had eyes for Marianna and nobody else.

Marianna just wanted to retort something, when someone tapped on Rath shoulder and asked for a dance with her.

" Of course. Take all the time you want", Rath wanted to prevent more details about the girl. With quick steps he made his way to the food table. He just spotted Larek there and he looked like he needed company.

Marianna turned her neck to the side and followed Rath with her glance. " Hey, we´re not finished here".

All she got from Rath was a wave of her hand in return. Damn him. He just left her alone with a stranger.

" Hello Marianna. You look wonderful tonight", the stranger said.

Carefully Marianna looked back at the owner of the voice. A voice she didn´t hear for a while now and hoped to never hear again. Shocked her colour trained from her face and her eyes almost popped out of their sockets. " Nikolai"

TBC


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24 The first step into the darkness**

Nikolai noticed the frozen expression of his sister. She probably thought she would never see him again and then in the castle of fathers enemy. Well she thought wrong and Nikolai almost smiled that the surprise worked perfectly. Father would be so proud of him if he could see him now. It wasn´t like he didn´t know that she was still alive and took shelter by the enemy. Vilandra was an easy target, she didn´t even notice that he sucked important information from her mind when they kissed. She was so obsessed with finding Mr. Right that he hadn´t to do much to satisfy her. He played the perfect boyfriend pretty good and nobody realized it.

" You don´t seem to be happy to see your brother, do you?".

Marianna tried to quell her fear. But it was not easy when she felt the cold he was emitting. Something he had in common with her father. " What are you doing here?".

" I was invited ", Nikolai couldn´t contain his smile any longer. And it grew wider when he saw the quick flicker of fear in Mariannas eyes.

Marianna didn´t believe that. Who would invite the enemy to a party which was only for the people of the kingdom? But then something clicked in her brain and the person who would do that popped in her head. Vilandra. " You are Vilandras boyfriend then, or not Davico".

" Really good. You´re smarter than I thought", Nikolai knew that she would find it out eventually. But he didn´t think it would be so soon actually. He wanted to tease her a little before he would drop the bomb on her.

Marianna observed her surroundings with her eyes. She was looking if somebody noticed their weird behaviour towards each other. " What are you up to?".

" What kind of question is that? I´m just here because Vilandra wanted me to meet her parents and her friends", ok that was a lie. But who cared about that. Nobody would know it. Not until it was too late.

Marianna detected a strange twinkle in his eyes. That meant trouble usually. " Why don´t I believe you?".

Nikolai shrugged carelessly with his shoulders. It didn´t matter if she believed him or not. " Because you worry too much".

" Maybe the reason is that I know you too well", Marianna slowly got her backbone back. The fear made room for another feeling. The feeling of absolute hate and disgust. He obviously had another reason to be here, aside the fact that he was invited from Vilandra. He had something planned, just she didn´t know what. But she would get to the bottom of this.

Nikolai was amazed about the hatred which was sparkling in her eyes. Maybe she wasn´t that different from him. " Relax, would you? Enjoy the party, sister dear" with that Nikolai turned around.

Marianna couldn´t get her brother away without a warning. With a fast movement she grabbed him at his shoulder and pulled him closer to her. Then she put her mouth at his ear. What she had to tell him nobody should hear. " If you hurt Vilandra or any other member of my family I will personally rip you to pieces. Slow and extremly painful. And believe me that wasn´t an empty threat".

Nikolai faced his sister and stared scared at her eyes that were changing from light green to almost black. Without acknowledging her words he made his way away from her really fast. Before she decided to kick his ass in front of all the people.

Marianna watched after the retreating back of her brother. For the first time she felt strong and powerful. She finally accomplished to stand up to him and make him a bit scared of her. But then she remembered that Vilandra didn´t know about the true identity of her new boyfriend. And a new question rose in her. Why didn´t Nikolai use his real name if he was so supposedly in love with Vilandra? No, there was more to it than meets the eye. Vilandra had to know the truth and maybe she could convince her to break up with him. Marianna quickly scanned the crowd with her eyes to look where Vilandra was. But there were just too many people to identify someone. Therefore she had no other choice than lifting her skirt and go looking for her. She started with the food table, where she last saw Rath and Larek standing and stuffing their faces with food. However when she came to it, they were gone. At their place stood now a elderly couple and tried a piece of everything. Frantic she took a look around and thankfully she spotted Rath talking to someone. Immediately she scurried by all the people which were standing everywhere. Slightly out of breath she stopped in front of him.

" Have you seen Vilandra?".

Rath stared at her confused. " Not since she just disappeared and abandoned me".

" Where could she be?", Marianna asked more herself than Rath. Slowly the nightmare she had the night before came back to her, together with the feeling of helplessness and deep rooted fear.

Rath seemed to notice that something was going on. To anybody else it would look like she just was searching for Vilandra. But to him she was like an open book now. He saw that something wasn´t right in her eyes. " What is going on?".

" I can´t tell you yet. I have to find Vilandra first", without further explanation Marianna took off again and let him rather bewildered behind.

However Rath didn´t want to be left without some kind of answers, at least not this time. He didn´t push her because of her nightmares, he thought she would talk to him eventually when she was ready. But he would push now, because it seemed to be important and maybe she needed his help. Therefore he excused himself from his dialog partner and followed Marianna. Unfortunately he didn´t get around to do it for long, because his father intercepted just in that moment when he lost her blond head in the mass.

" Great. Just the person I wanted to have here. The king will make his announcement in a few minutes and he wants all members of the royal family with him when he spreads the news".

Rath only half listened to his father. He had other problems at the moment, namely looking for Marianna. " Sorry. But I have to find Marianna".

" Good. And when you found her you can tell the other they should come to the stairs", Mael was so excited about the news that he even notice the paniced state his son was in or else he would have asked what was going on.

Rath was actually glad that his father didn´t detect that something might be wrong, because he didn´t have the time to explain the situation to him. Technically he didn´t understood the situation himself, it was just this bad feeling and Mariannas paniced eyes that told him something bad was coming their way. So without a word he continued his search for Marianna.

Marianna meanwhile had found Larek, who told her that he saw Vilandra a few minutes ago out on the balcony. She said she was hot and needed fresh air. And now Marianna was on the way to the balcony. She passed many people and she had to side step a few, but after a while she finally arrived there. Immediately she scanned the place for a blond head or even Nikolai. However nobody was present at the moment. Just her and the moon, which was full tonight, were still outside. For a few moments she leant on the railing and breathed deeply serveral times. Maybe she overreacted in there and made a big fuss about nothing at all. Or her instincts were slowly forsaking her duty and let her go loopy. Marianna debatted a little longer with her mind before she decided to go inside again and find Rath. But just as she pushed herself away from the railing movement out of the corner of her eyes caught her attention. At first she thought it were the guards, who protected the palace. Still she took a closer look, because there were too many. Usually just two guards were patroulling at night, tonight it were two at every side. Strange that she saw more than that. And then something caught her eye. The moonlight shone directly at one of the men, who was sneaking crouched in her direction and in that moment she identified the crest of the armour. That were no soldiers of King Salem but of her fathers army. And they were preparing themself for an attack. Instantly Marianna turned around and ran into the ballroom again. She had to warn everybody and bring them to safety before someone got hurt. However in the minute she stepped foot inside, the king called the attention of everybody because he wanted to make an announcement. Immediately all the people started getting closer to hear what he wanted to say better. Unfortunately for Marianna they were standing shoulder on shoulder like a wall between her and the king. Actually she could have screamed that they would be attacked, but that would have caused a panic by the many people and she didn´t need them to run around like flushed chickens who were trying to get to the door and hurt to many others in the process. So there was just this one option for her. With all her might she pushed her way through the crowd and used even her powers to move men twice her size out of her path. Even so it progressed to slowly for her and she had to do something really fast. She had to cause a panic after all, maybe she could at least save as many people as she could with it. In exactly the same moment she opened her mouth to shout a warning, the king told proudly of the upcoming marriage of his son with Ava and her words were swallowed by the loud clapping. Desperate Marianna was on the brink to panic when a loud explosion rocked the whole palace. Everybody was overthrown or shredded from the shock wave. Screams and cries were heard through the noice of blast and gunfire. Marianna, who jumped on the ground and protected her head with her arms during the explosion, looked up. Shocked she witnessed something so horrible that it was hard to put it in words. People were lying on the ground, most of them weren´t in shape to be regnorized anymore. Limbs and other things were scattered around the room and the floor was flooded with blood. Here and there sat injured people, who mourned the lose of a family member or their spouses. Others were trying to get to the door and didn´t even took regard to the people beside them. Children were crying for their parents or were trying to find them. And in all the midst was a battle starting. On the one side was King Salems army and at the other were the men of her father. Slowly Marianna arose from her position on the floor and tried to overlook all the dead or the blood or the missing limbs. Carefully she checked herself for any kind of injury. Except for the massive shock she received nothing was hurt thankfully. After that she went to the few lucky people who survived the attack relatively unharmed. With a little persuasiveness she managed to get them out of harms way. When she saw that the innocent bystanders were safe she noticed that she missed two of them. In crouched position she sneaked at first to the girl. A few times she had to duck or she would have been shot.

" Hey. You have to go. It´s not safe here".

The girl turned around and looked at Marianna with red rimmed eyes and an expression that was heartshattering. Shocked Marianna realised it was Vilandra. " I can´t leave my mother here. We have to help her".

Marianna looked over Vilandras shoulder and saw the queen lying lifeless on the floor. They couldn´t help her anymore, she was already dead. For a moment Marianna was thrown back to the death of her own mother and the picture of her unmoving body sprung to her mind. It was like a nightmare she was trapped in and she had to relive the death of her mother over and over again. With every feeling she felt that day. All the pain and the sorrow and the what if´s. " I´m sorry Vilandra. We can´t help her, it´s too late for that. But I have to get you to safety".

" No, you´re lying. My mother isn´t dead. She´s just knocked out", Vilandra shook her head vigorously and more tears were leaving her eyes. No that couldn´t be. Not now.

Marianna understood the feeling. If she would have had the time she would have been denying the death of her mother, too. " I promise that I´ll bring you mother away, you just have to promise me to go to the other survivors. Their on their way to the dungeons, where they´re safe for the moment".

" Are you serious?", Vilandra glanced at her like a little child who lost his favourite toy.

Marianna nodded at her. " Of course. But now go".

Vilandra embraced her mother a last time and gave her a kiss on her cold, blue lips before she took off. Marianna watched after her until she was out of her sight. Then she made her way to the last survivor. She identified him already from far away. The royal cape gave him away. Still in her crouched position she went to him. Always on guard and ready to use her powers if she had to. When she arrived by Zan he was almost lying on someone and was crying his eyes out. Without looking Marianna regnorized the blue dress of Ava. Marianna tried to keep her tears at bay, but it was just to sad to see all this death and the destruction. Slowly she kneeled beside Zan and tried to pry him away from the corpse.

" No let me. I can´t leave her alone. I promised her that I would never leave her", Zan was struggling against Marianna and held tighter on Ava.

Marianna needed all her strength to keep her hold on Zan. She knew his pain, but they were in the middle of a battle and every moment some of the soldiers could detect them and attack. She didn´t want to lose more of her family. " She already left. You can´t save her anymore".

" I know".

Marianna heard a shot, which was hitting something near them. They didn´t have much time left. " Zan I beg you. Follow the example of your sister and take shelter with the others in the dungeon".

" Vilandra is alive?", Zan seemed to notice for the first time that he had still other members of his family besides Ava.

Marianna did something she swore she wouldn´t do anymore. But she had no other option left. " Yes. She and your parents are waiting for you there". Ok she lied. So sue her.

Zan came finally to his senses again and with a last goodbye to his beloved Ava made a dash for the door on the other side of the room.

Relieved Marianna could at last draw her attention to important matters. Namely finding a weapon and putting into practise what she learned all those years. She passed over so many broken bodies and seperated body parts that she almost lost her stomach in the process. Thankfully she didn´t got around to eat something at the party, because it would have been a waste now. Slowly she searched for something that she could use as a weapon no matter what. The main thing was that it could cause much damage or at least hurt a lot. On her way through all the carcasses she discovered two other members of the royal family. King Salem seemed to have tried to protect Abidale from the explosion. Too bad that he couldn´t either save her nor himself. Marianna stopped for a few seconds to mourn the loss of such great persons who took her in althrough they didn´t know her. Especially Abidale, who gave her the feeling to be part of a loving family again. She would always be grateful for all they had done for her and she swore to take revenge for their deaths. Just as the thought was over a laser bullet flew directly past her arm and grazed her skin. Startled she looked at the spot and saw blood oozing from a little wound there. Thank godness it was just a grazing shot and didn´t hurt that much yet. But she had to be more careful from now on or the next time the shoot would hit something vital. Cautiously Marianna eyed her surroundings, when she noticed that a soldier of her fathers army was targeting her with his laser gun. That bastard was the one who hurt her arm and destroyed part of her dress. Quick she tried to activate her strength and send a powerful blast at him before he could even pull the trigger. However her mind was in a overload, because of all the things she saw tonight, that nothing was happening. And then Marianna heard a shot ringing in her ears and saw the bullet flying exactly in her direction. Just as she wanted to evade to the side, a body hit her really hard and threw her to the ground. A few seconds she stayed there with closed eyes, because the fall knocked the air out of her. When she opened them again she identified the body, which was half lying on her and half lying on the ground beneath her, as the body of Corly.

" Corly? Can you hear me?", Marianna shook her and tried to get any reaction out of her.

Suddenly she touched something wet on Corly´s back. Slowly she took her hand back and looked at it. Horrofied she saw that it was blood. Corly was hit from the bullet which was intentened for her actually. Promptly Marianna rolled them around so that Corly was now lying on her back and Marianna was hovering over her. Thankfully the bullet went right through her belly. But the many blood was worrying Marianna a bit. Paniced she tore a piece of her skirt off and pushed it on the bleeding wound.

" Why did you do it? Why did you risk your life for me?", Marianna didn´t understand why someone would do something so brave for someone he didn´t even know that well. It was absolute crazy.

Corly opened her eyes slowly and looked at Marianna with a small smile on her face. " Because I couldn´t let them kill my sister".

" What?".

Corly had slight problems with breathing and the blood that came pouring out of her mouth was alarming. " Khivar is my father, too. Ask my mother. It´s true".

Mariannas first reaction was to not believe such a lie. But her heart told her that it was true and Rath told her just this morning that she should listen to it, because it spoke the truth. However that would mean she could lose more of her family. No not anymore. She couldn´t save her mother or the others because she was too late. But Corly was still alive and she deserved to keep her life longer. She saved her life and now she would do it in return for her sister. Roughly Marianna ripped Corlys dress open and placed her right hand on the wound.

" Look in my eyes. I´ll try to heal you. But you have to help me do it. Can you do that?", Marianna never tried to heal someone and she didn´t know if she could actually do it, but she had to at least give it a shot.

Corly nodded her head and held eye contact with her sister. " I trust you".

Marianna breath deeply in and out a few times before she closed her eyes and concentrated on the wound and what was damaged internally. Slowly the noises around her were fading into absolute silence. She just heard the sound of her heart beating and the air that was pressed out of her lungs. Within a few seconds she felt like she left her body and went with her mind to another place. It was stuffy and tight in there and it looked disgusting. Then she saw something rather disturbing and knew where she was. She was in Corlys entrails and noticed the path were the bullet went through. With all her strength she concentrated a little harder to heal the damage. Halfway there she was thrown out of her concentration, because she was hit by something and it startled her. Immediately her mind was returning in her own body again and the force of it was tossing her on the ground. Somewhat confused and out of breath she crawled to the spot where corly were lying. To her surprise she discovered that Corly had her eyes closed but she was breathing normal again. The wound was still there, but it stopped bleeding. Marianna could have cried of happiness, but she knew that there was still time when this all was over. With the thought that Corly would live for another few years Marianna tried to stand up on her feet to finally find a weapon. Unfortunately her feets couldn´t support her body, because the healing took more out of her than she thought and she was on the brink to crash back to the floor, when she felt two strong arms holding her upright. Amazed she turned her head and looked in the eyes of Mael.

" I´m so glad you´re alive", Marianna turned around completely and threw her arms around him. Finally someone who wasn´t dead or close to it. Tears of joy were flowing over her cheeks and sobs were wracking her body.

Mael held tightly onto Marianna. He already thought that nobody of his family was still alive. He found his wife, his brother, his daughter and his sister in law lying dead on the floor earlier and he believed that everything was over. But then he saw Rath fighting in the midst of the crowd and he regained new hope. Not everything was lost yet. " I can say the same about you". Carefully he pushed her tenderly off of his body and faced her. " Have you found survivors?".

" A few. Among them were Vilandra and Zan. I send them all to the dungeon. I thought they were safer there than here".

Mael stroked gently her head. He didn´t want to know what she went through tonight and how much of her innocence she lost in the process. " You did good. I knew that I could count on you".

Mariannas eyes filled with tears again. " Don´t. I don´t deserve that. I couldn´t save the king or his wife or your family. I failed and so much is lost".

" Don´t say that. You saved a few people. That´s more than others would have done. They would have saved their own asses and wouldn´t have stayed back like you", Mael was proud of her. She risked her life for others. She knew how dangerous it was and she still took the chance to get shot or worse, because she wanted to help the few lucky people which survived the explosion.

Marianna shook her head. No matter what Mael told her, she was a failure and was not worth to become a leading commander. " Great. I saved a few people. But I should have save everybody. My job is to protect my family".

" You can´t always save everyone. That´s not possible. You should know that there are casualties in a war and sometimes we can´t do anything to prevent that. Your job is to try your best and nothing more", why couldn´t she understand that. Besides Mael should protect his family, too. And he failed like Marianna. But to succumb to self pity wasn´t good at all. After all there were still people who counted on them.

Marianna wanted to reply that she didn´t try hard enough, when she noticed movement beside her. But in that moment it was already too late. Before she could utter a word or react, someone put his laser sword in Maels back. Immediately Marianna sent a blast at the attacker, which wasn´t really powerful, because her energy wasn´t fully loaded again. The attacker was just knocked to the ground a few feets away from them. Then she became aware that Mael was in the process to fall over. In an instant she was by his side and tried to support him. The plan would have worked, if her strength would have been back by now. Unfortunately it wasn´t the case and both crashed to the floor really hard.

" Oh god. I´m so sorry. I didn´t see him", Marianna kneeled beneath Mael, which was lying on his back with his eyes closed and blood was dripping from his mouth.

" Pity that he died so quick. I wanted him to suffer a bit before I finally killed him", a voice startled Marianna in her mourning.

Slowly she turned her head in the direction of the voice. Her eyes were sparkling dangerously at her brothers smiling face. He seemed to be proud of his action, althrough it wasn´t big to kill someone who wasn´t ready or didn´t see it coming. No he had nothing to be proud of. Without averting her eyes, she looked for Maels weapon with her right hand. " Pity that you can´t enjoy your victory".

" Who should me keep away from that? You? That´s a laugh", Nikolai observed her the whole evening. She had no weapons and her powers were at a low. It would be easy to kill her. He wouldn´t even need his laser sword for it.

Marianna finally found Maels laser sword and gripped it tightly in her hand. Then she arose with the drawn sword. " Yeah. Laugh it up. But it will be the last thing you do tonight".

" Really? I´m scared out of my wits", Nikolai wasn´t impressed about the bravery his sister was showing. What could she really do to him in her condition? She had no powers and no one who could help her.

Marianna should have commented that. But it wasn´t worth it to say something. She wanted to save her breath for important things. So without a word she attacked her brother. The rage was giving her a new boost and some of her powers came back. With all her might she waved her sword through the air and hit Nikolai by the way on his cheek. He wouldn´t accept that and striked back with his sword. However Marianna could dodge it easily and all he hit was her sword. The sparks were flying when the laser blades were crashing against each other.

" Is that all you got? No wonder you were always one step behind me", Marianna knew that Nikolai was driven by his anger and that let him made mistakes. It was good to know your enemy. A advantage he didn´t have anymore, because she change since she came to this castle.

Nikolai felt unbelievable rage rose in his body. She wanted a real fight, then she should get it. " I just wanted to give you a chance. But if you don´t want it. Fine".

Marianna saw the change in him. His complete body language was revealing him and his intentions. So without giving her brother a chance to react she beat her sword over and over again on his. He had difficulties to keep up with her, because she had a lot of strength for a girl. Marianna changed her angle from time to time and she got Nikolai to it to yield back from her. What led that she had him almost pinned against a wall that was behind them. She wanted to corner him and then she would slice him up piece by piece with all the time in the world. She always wanted to know how much pain a body could stand before it collapsed. And she had found her perfect object for that. But there was one thing she hadn´t reckoned with. Namely that Nikolai guessed her intentions and bolted out of the castle with quick steps.

" Oh no. You gutless bastard. You´re not getting away that easily", with that Marianna chased after him.

She pushed her body to its limits and ran like something was after her. Her brother couldn´t simply run away from her and expect that she would let him go. Not after what he had done to her. This time she wouldn´t show mercy. This time his last hour had come and she would enjoy every pain she would cause him. But her pursuit was abruptly stopped just outside the outer walls when a arm shoot out of nothing and knocked her off of her feet. For a moment Marianna didn´t know what happened, until she looked at the barrel of a laser gun. Shocked she let her gaze wander to the owner of the gun. However her attacker was hidden behind a helmet and she couldn´t identify him. All she could see were two light pools of green through a slit in the helmet. Those eyes were familiar to her somehow, she knew them. But damn she couldn´t remember from where. Then something strange happened. Her attacker seemed to be shocked to see her actually. She could detect it from his eyes, which were stunned looking at her. The hand in which the gun was started to shake and Marianna used her opportunity to slap it out of his hands. With a jolt she jumped to her feet and drove the laser sword through his lower body, before he could do something. Weakened he fell firstly on his knees and then on his back. While the attacker laid there and waited for death to come, Marianna regnorized the symbol on his armour. Tears sprung to her eyes and she immediately kneeled by his side. Carefully she took the helmet off in hope to be wrong. But her suspicion was confirmed when she could see his face. She had killed her mentor and surrogate father Hewik.

" Don´t die. Please. I´m sorry. I didn´t want that", Marianna laid her head on his chest and cried. Why didn´t she identify the eyes sooner? She could have prevented this all. And why didn´t he say a word to her?

Suddenly Marianna felt something touching her hair. Startled she looked up and gazed in Hewiks face. His left hand was stroking her head. " Don´t cry, Angel".

" Oh Hewik. Why didn´t you say something? You could have stopped me".

Hewik tried to smile, but the pain was holding him back from it. " You were too fast for me. I hesitated too long and you took advantage of it".

" Why did you hesitate? You taught me that you shouldn´t give your opponent the time to react", Marianna didn´t understand it. Everything she learned she had from him. He showed her how to outsmart the enemy with simple moves. Why did he make such a mistake?

Hewik was surprised that she could still remember what he told her. Actually he shouldn´t, because she was his best soldier and the smartest kid he knew. " I thought you were dead. And then you were lying in front of me, just like that. It was a bit of a shock for me".

" I´m sorry. You´re the last person I wanted to harm", Marianna felt horrible that she killed her first person and then off all people the only living soul who treated her like she mattered, beside her mother. She knew that she wouldn´t get this picture out of her head ever. It would probably haunt her for the rest of her life.

Hewik pulled himself together and embraced Marianna tightly. There was so much he wanted to tell her actually, but he knew that he didn´t have the time anymore. Death was coming and he could feel it. Strangly he wasn´t afraid or angry. " Don´t be. You did what you had to do and I´m so proud of you. I´m glad that you ended my life and nobody else. And remember that I´m not angry or dissapointed in you. I love you and I will always look over you, no matter where I´am".

Marianna couldn´t contain her tears. She never would forget all the things he taught her or the lessons she learned or the lectures she got from him. He was the one who made what she was today. " I love you, too. And I want to thank you for everything you did for me".

" I have to thank you", Hewik had difficulties to breath. His lungs were slowly filling with blood and hindered them to function properly. He had to say one last thing before he died. Marianna had to know his secret and with that the truth about herself. " Listen. Khivar is not...is...not".

That was the last thing Marianna heard before Hewik closed his eyes forever. His hands were sliding from her back, but she held on. Hopefully he had a better life wherever he went. And maybe he meet up with her mother there and they could protect her together. Someday she would see them again, of that she was sure. Until then she would do everything in her power to make them proud of her. She had promised her mother to take revenge for her, but she wasn´t ready then. Now it was something different. She had nothing to lose anymore and her hate hit a new level. She would put all her energy in eliminating her father and blow his kingdom to another planet. Even if it meant she would die also, but she would take care that she wasn´t alone. Suddenly her gaze fell on the laser sword in Hewiks belt. It was familiar. Carefully she pulled it out and smiled. It was her sword that she got from him.

" I´m so deeply touched from this scene that I almost had to puke", Marianna didn´t have to turn around to know who was behind here. Nikolai finally decided to take action. Alright. She was finally ready for him.

Slowly Marianna arose from her position and faced her brother with both hands armed. " Aha. The coward finally comes out of his hiding place. How long did you stand there and listen".

" Long enough to witness the tragedy of this spectacle. It was heartwrenching to watch you two", Nikolai touched his chest at the place where usually the heart was.

Marianna raised her right eyebrow. " And since when do you have a heart? Did I miss something?".

" I´m offended. How can you say something like that about your brother?", Nikolai acted like he was shocked. What a bad actor. But then he seemed to have forgotten something. " Wait. I´m actually just you´re half brother".

Marianna was confused. What did he just say? Half brother? But that would mean that they had only one parent in common. " What?".

" Didn´t you listen to Hewik? He tried to tell you something with his last breath. Too bad that he didn´t get around to vocalize it fully", Nikolai enjoyed this moment very much. He would give Marianna the finishing stroke before he killed her finally.

Marianna got more confused the more Nikolai said. What did he try to tell her? What had Hewik to do with it? She didn´t hear anything that would give her a clue." What are you talking about?".

" He wanted to tell you that Khivar is not your father. You see Hewik was in love with our mother since he started to work as a leading commander. Mother began to like the attention she was getting and fell in love with him, too. One thing lead to another and then you came into the picture". Nikolai loved to torture Marianna. It must be devasting for her to figure out that she killed her father. And he knew the truth all along together with his father.

Marianna thought about the things her brother threw at her. Hewik was in love with her mother and how she understood it she was the product of this love. But that would mean she killed her biological father. " You´re lying!".

Nikolai just shrugged. " Believe what you want. But I told you the truth".

" If that´s the case, why didn´t fa..I mean Khivar kill him?".

Nikolai smiled and he looked more scary than the trees Marianna had faced in the forest. " Because he needed him to fullfill his evil plan. Besides it was more fun to see him die from your hand. Father will love that twist".

Marianna suddenly noticed that something changed in her. She felt all this energy in her body and she started to glow. The wind, which was blowing balmy that night, evolved to a storm. The trees around them bent dangerously to the ground and thunderbolts were flashing the sky. On of them striked directly in their midst.

Nikolai jumped back startled. He never saw Marianna like that. Her body was emitting this bright light and her eyes were changing from green to black. He didn´t know that she possessed such a great deal of power. He was so sure that she didn´t have that much strength anymore. But the hate must have fulled her energy level dramatically. If he thought he had the slightest change to win against her before he knew that he could forget it now. Stunned he saw how Mariannas hand began to change their colour from white to red and she let her weapons abruptly falling to the ground, just like they had burned them. Then she turned her gaze in his direction and looked in his eyes. Hypnoticed he just stood there and held the glance. Until a blast hit him square in his chest and he was flung at a tree. He painfully dashed against the trunk of it before he crashed hard to the ground. But Marianna didn´t give him a break and the next thing he knew he was thrown through the air again and hit the next tree. For a few minutes she tossed him around like a doll and let him crash against each thing that was hard enough to withstand the impact of a body. The rage drove her further into her obsession to destroy Nikolai. While he fought against the upcoming blackout Mariannas powers conked out and Nikolai fell midair to the ground. His body felt like a walking wound. Every part hurt like hell and there were probably a few broken bones. If there were even bones left in his body. The moment he tried to get back on his feet Marianna crashed on her knees, drained from the use of her powers.

" Is that actually all you got? I expected more from you", Nikolai stood up with shaky legs. His face was bloody and bruised badly. He would look hell in the morning. But that would fit because he felt like that tomorrow.

Marianna looked up at that and a smile broke out on her face. She didn´t kill him but she sure had kicked his ass good. " Oh my. I like your new face. Looks better than before. Too bad that I have nothing to keep that picture for the afterworld".

" Oh you think you´re funny. But we will see who laughs last", Nikolai could barely stand on his legs and he was bent slightly to the side. His right arms was pressed at his side and every step he took seemed to be painful. At least judging after his contorted with pain face.

Marianna needed more time than usual to arose from her position, but when she stood her legs didn´t give away. That meant she had still enough strength to finish this. " I can tell you that already. It will be me".

Before Nikolai could reply something a blast shot through the dark and hit Marianna in the back. She flew through the air like her brother earlier and bounce with her left shoulder against a big tree, where she then fell down. With her head directly on a hard stone. Lifelessly she laid on the ground and didn´t notice two persons running away.

TBC


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25 The aftermath of the attack**

The battle in the castle was slowly dying out and most of the men were either wounded or pretty wiped out. King Salems army did, aside from their disadvantage, put up a good fight and they didn´t lose as much soldier in the fight as the others. Larek and Rath were the last to drop their weapons when the rest of the enemy troops bolted scared from the palace. Or like Rath saw what was left of it. He watched around him and detected that most of the ball room was trashed. The place where the stairs was before, was just only a heap of wood now. The north and east wall were just partly there anymore, because the explosion put a big hole in them. The furniture was either lying on the floor or broken or couldn´t be regnorized. The floor was overlaid with carcasses or parts of them. And everything that wasn´t destroyed was splattered with blood. Rath felt the adrenaline draining from his body and his feet felt like yello. Immediately he let himself slump to the floor and laid his weapon beneath him. He didn´t know how much people he killed tonight, but he never wanted to do something like that again. One minute everything was fine and he enjoyed himself, the next the hell breakes loose and he had to fight. And to think that his worst fear was that he would bore himself to death with all this dull persons. With a shaky hand Rath wiped the sweat from his forehead. He was lucky that he wasn´t in close proximity of the explosion, because he was chasing after Marianna. Speaking of her, he looked around and scanned the place for a green dress or anything that would say him that she was here. But from his position on the floor he couldn´t see anything concrete.

" Oh man, I´m pretty whacked", Larek threw his sword near Rath and placed his butt at the spot beside him. He looked a little more wrecked like the others soldiers. That was no surprise if one saw how Larek fought. It was a wonder that he was still alive.

Rath slowly turned his head and eyed his friend. " You´re telling me. I´ll probably feel like shit in the morning".

" I already feel like that now", Larek seemed to look for something. " Have you seen anyone from your family?".

Rath shook his head, but he felt them and it was painful until everything just stopped. He knew what it meant and he was still hoping that he was wrong. " No. I saw my father quickly. He was fighting with two soldiers. But then he disappeared from my sight. Since then I didn´t see anyone".

Larek looked back over his shoulders, because he heard a noise that sounded like a whistle behind him. Stunned he saw Vilandra. Or more like her head peeking through a gap at the door, which lead to the dungeon. Larek gave Rath a nudge and pointed behind them, when he got a strange expression from his friend. In an instant both jumped to their feet and made their way to her.

" Is it over?", Vilandra didn´t appear to have any injuries, but the look on her face was alarming. She was white as a ghost and her make up had left streaks on her face from all the crying. Nothing unusual considering their situation. But the pain in her eyes was disturbing.

Rath did something he never done before. He stepped closer to Vilandra and embraced her tightly. Through the link he had with her he felt her sadness. Her parents didn´t make it. " For now. But they can attack anytime again".

" It was so horrible. There was so much blood and screams and panic", Vilandra burst into tears again and clung to Rath like she would be drowning. At first she didn´t grasped what was happening around her. Then she just reacted without realizing what she was doing. Now after the shock disappeared everything was overrunning her.

Rath stroked her head tenderly. He didn´t want to know what she went through. He just felt it and it was enough for him. " It´s ok. It´s over. You´re safe now".

Vilandra looked up at Rath. In her glance was so much sorrow and pain. In that moment she appeared like a little child. " My mother is dead. I wanted to stay with her. But Marianna told me that it wasn´t safe for me anymore. She sent me down to the dungeon with a few others".

" I´m so sorry".

Vilandra put her head on Raths chest again. It was just to much for her at the moment. She just wanted to wake up and notice it was just a nightmare. " What about your parents?".

" I don´t know", Rath didn´t want to talk about it. He wanted to still believe that they were alright, althrough his heart told him another story. He wouldn´t think something different until he had prove. But the fact that his parents weren´t down in the dungeon with Vilandra wasn´t good. " Who was with you?".

Vilandra thought really hard about that. She was so in shock that she didn´t regnorized the people around her. " Zan, a few of fathers advisers and children without their parents".

Rath was glad to hear that Zan was still alive. Over Vilandras shoulder he glanced at Larek, who just stood there and looked around. He waited till he had eye contact with his friend, before he gave him a sign to take care of Vilandra.

Carefully Larek extracted her from him and led her out of this chaos. He probably would bring her in her bedroom, if it was still there. She had undergone enough for one night and she needed her strength for the next days to come. If that evening was hard, then the following days would be harder. Rath surveyed the room again, before he called all soldiers together. He told them that they should bring the dead outside, where they would be laid side by side, so that the relatives could see if someone from their family was under the carcasses. They would decide tomorrow what they would do with them, when the shock died down. When the soldiers were finished with clearing the room, they should get rid of the destruction. At least the things they could do tonight. So without making a big fuss like usual the men did what they were told. While they were busy, Rath prepared himself for the search for his family. He had to know what happened to them. Reluctantly he walked over the dead bodies and looked at every face. He was relieved everytime he didn´t know them or regnorized them as people he barely knew. When he came to a spot where he seemed to identify the uniform of his father a body blocked his way. Rath looked up rather surprised and was disappointed that it was just Nolak.

" You shouldn´t be here anymore. You look pretty wasted. Maybe you should rest for the night. You can´t do anything here anyhow".

Rath was really tired, but he was awake enough to see that Nolak was trying to hide something from him. " I´m looking for my family. I will rest when I know what happened to them".

" Don´t do that to yourself. It doesn´t change anything", Nolak wanted to spare Rath that cruel picture. It was bad, even for him and he was just a friend of the family.

Rath pushed Nolak out of his way. How dare he tell him what to do. He was old enough to make his own decisions. But when he saw the body of his father lying in his blood, he regretted it instantly. Rath had to turn around to prevent from losing his stomach all over the floor. He put his hand over his mouth and laid a hand on his belly. No that couldn´t be. His father wasn´t dead, he couldn´t. He was the best soldier and the best man when it came around how to fight the enemy. Everything he learned he got from him. Just as he wanted to turn back he saw the bodies of his mother and his uncle near them. The bile in his stomach rose higher and threatened to choke him. However when he glanced in another direction, because he couldn´t look at them anymore, he noticed the blue dress of his sister. Immediately he stormed out of the castle and threw up beside the entrance. With his right hand he braced himself on the wall, while he bent his torso down. For a few minutes he lost all the food he ate the last few hours, before he just only gagged, because he hadn´t anything anymore to threw up. After that he wiped the remnant of his puke from his mouth with the back of his hand. He then crashed to his knees and screamed as loud as he could.

Nolak watched Rath for a few minutes. It was hard to see him in this condition. He was always so strong in everything. But now he was just a broken man with nobody to hold onto. He lost everything in one night and nothing could make it better. Nolak didn´t want to imagine what that must feel like to go through that. Carefully he made his way to Rath when he noticed that the screams where subsiding. " Do you feel better, now that you know?".

" No. But I saw it with my own eyes. I needed prove to believe what my feeling were telling me", he didn´t know if Nolak could understand that, but he wouldn´t have believed it if someone had told him the news. He needed to see it for himself.

Nolak wasn´t big with emotional gestures. He had no family or a wife with kids. All he ever had was his work and it wasn´t smart to develop feelings for your fosterlings. But he always felt respect towards Mael and Rath. So with slightly difficulties he stretched his arm out and laid it on Raths shoulder. " If you need my help, I´m here for you".

" Thank you", Rath looked back at him. He was really touched from the offer. " Actually you can help me. I need a meeting by tomorrow morning".

Nolak saw something in Raths eyes that scared him. He expected to see sadness or sorrow. But instead there was hate and fury. " What are you up to?".

" We´ll planning a counter attack. We´ll mobilize every men who can hold a sword or knows how to handle it and we´re fighting back. Khivar won´t know what hit him before it´s too late", Rath imagined everything already in his head. He would show Khivar what it meant to piss him off. No matter the costs and nobody could hold him back anymore. Now more than ever.

Nolak was worried that Rath would run into something dangerous or deadly. Alright he understood that he was angry for the death of his family. But it wasn´t smart to plan an attack when the feelings were running high. " Think about what you´re saying. I know you´re upset and I can´t blame you. But I don´t believe that your thinking clearly at the moment. Wait until everything is calmer".

" I don´t care what you´re thinking. I just want you to do it", with that Rath stormed away. He had to go and see Vilandra and Zan. After all they everything he had now. And he would take care that it stayed this way.

Nolak looked after Rath rather worried. He had to keep him from following through his plan. He was slowly on the way to destruction, namely his own. But Rath was stubborn and wouldn´t listen to him. Nolak racked his brain to find a solution for his problem. Who was capable of handling Rath without him knowing it? Suddenly a picture from a little annoying girl popped in his head. Without wasting more time he went back into the palace to look for her. He viewed every corner and every room, but he didn´t find her. She was nowhere to find. That left Nolak just one option. Immediately he headed to the nearest soldier he could find.

" Do you know where Marianna is?".

The soldier stopped sweeping the floor and looked up. " The last I saw her she was chasing after Vilandras boyfriend".

" Did you see in which direction they went?", he had to find her and that really fast. She could be in trouble already. She was unarmed and nobody noticed her missing. Why didn´t she bring herself in safety the moment hell broke loose?

The soldier shook his head. " I just saw her running out of the entrance".

" Great. Listen take a few men and go looking for her. And you´re not coming back until you found her. Is that clear", Nolak wouldn´t take no for an answer. She was important for them.

The soldier was stunned that he was ordered from someone that was not his commander. But he knew that it wasn´t smart to refuse an order. Besides he liked Marianna and he wouldn´t need much to get the others to help him. " Absolutely clear".

Nolak turned around without waiting if the soldier was doing what he was ordered to and went to the hospital ward. He wanted to see how much people survived the attack and how bad it really was. After all he had the commando, now that the king and the commander were dead. On his way to the invalids wing he noticed that the most rooms and part of the corridors were almost in one piece, except for a few rifts in the walls and fallen pictures. But nothing major was destroyed or broken. When he came near the hospital ward he saw healers running around, carrying things and putting people out of their way. It was like a madhouse, what meant that more persons survived the attack then he thought. He could hear children calling for their mothers. Women were crying and men trying to calm them down. Others were just sitting in a corner or leaning on a wall without saying anything, they only stared at one point. In all the swarming he could detect Zan, Larek, Rath and Vilandra. He observed them for a while and thought about the pressure and the obligations they had to take on from their parents now. It wouldn´t be easy for them and there would probably be times when it seemed likely that they wouldn´t make it. He wished that they were more mature and much older when they took over their obligations. They were still children which were just stepping into the world of grown ups. They didn´t know how to handle a whole kingdom or what they had to do. Carefully he watched how Zan and Rath were keeping close to Vilandra, just like they wanted to protect her. Larek however was scanning the corridor for someone. But it seemed he didn´t find what he was looking for. Suddenly Nolak heard quick steps running behind him and he immediately turned around.

" We found her", it were two of the soldiers who were carrying a pretty hurt but still alive Marianna in their arms.

Nolak went to them and eyed her thorough. She didn´t seemed to be in immediate danger. She had no bullets wound, as much as he could see and her eyes were clouded with shock and sadness but awake. What worried him was the blood which was everywhere on her shredded dress and her hands. " Where was she?".

The younger soldiers just shrugged. " No idea. She came towards us and cried because she destroyed the beautiful dress. We don´t know what happened or where she was".

Nolak looked closer at the big gash at the right side on her forehead just under her hairline. It looked pretty nasty, but thankfully it stopped bleeding. He took her face in his hands and made her look at him. The horror in her eyes was pretty scary. " Do you remember what happened?".

" I destroyed the dress and made it dirty", she sounded so much like a little girl, whose favourite doll was broken.

Nolak was concerned about the condition she seemed to be in. Something must have happened that made her act that way. " Why did you run from the castle? What made you do it?".

" I had to stop my brother".

Nolak faced the soldiers to see if they knew about what she was talking. But they just shook their heads. Maybe she just needed rest right now and tomorrow she would talk more like herself. " Bring her to the healers. They should check her".

Instantly they continued carrying her to the room, where all the injured were waiting to get examined. On their way there they get stopped from Rath, who took Marianna from them and send them away. The moment she laid in his arms she began to cry again and entwined her right arm around his neck tightly, the other arm was lifeless hanging at her side. Rath seemed to try to calm her by saying something to her. Nolak was a bit stunned about the interaction between them. He knew that there was something but he didn´t know that it was so serious. Slowly he turned around and followed the two soldiers. Maybe someone needed his help, because he couldn´t do anything here anymore.

Rath meanwhile brought Marianna to a healer and laid her carefully on a bed. But the moment he was letting her go, she held on strongly and almost choked him in the process. " No. Don´t leave me".

" I´m not going anywhere. The healer has to look at you and I would be in the way. I´m staying near you. I promise", Rath stroked her back reassuringly. She was pretty confused at the moment and he didn´t know what happened or who did that to her or how he could help.

Marianna seemed to believe him and let go instantly. The healer who was waiting behind her started to examine her the minute she wasn´t clinging to Rath anymore. He took his scanner and checked her internal organs to see if something was damaged in there. But thankfully everything was fine and he didn´t find anything. After that he surveyd all other spots which could be harmed. To his relieve he just found a few scratches which would be healing soon, a few bruises and some abrasions at her feet and her arms. Obviously she was running around on the stoney ground without her shoes. Then he took a closer look at her left arm, which she had pressed tightly at her side. He winced when he saw the picture on his scanner. The shoulder was dislocated and it would be painful to put it back again. Rath who saw the expression on the healers face stepped immediately closer.

" What is it?".

The healer branched off of his scanner. " Her shoulder is dislocated and I have to put it back", he bent closer to Rath and whispered. " It will be very painful for her".

" How painful are we talking?", he didn´t want anything to harm Marianna. She went through enough and he wanted to spare her more.

The healer thought about something he could say to describe the pain to Rath. But he found nothing. " So much that she could faint from it".

" Can I help you?", if he could take the pain on himself he would do it. But because he couldn´t do that to his regret he offered his help. Besides it gave him something do that than just standing there and watch everything.

The healer nodded. " Take her right hand and keep her occupied".

Rath was at her side in an instant and held her hand. Slowly he pressed her down on the bed and kneeled on the ground so that he had direct eye contact with her. She was absolutely terrified, judging after the look in her eyes. Tenderly he stroked the hairs from her face. " Don´t worry. There´s nothing you have to be scared of".

Marianna relaxed slightly and let her body rest. She knew that Rath wouldn´t let anything happen to her, no matter what. At least that was so until the healer took her arm and pushed her shoulder with all his might backwards. The pain that shoot through her whole body was almost unbearable and she grasped Raths hand so tightly that he thought she wanted to crush it. The cry she was emitting was really loud and could have wakened the death.

Vilandra couldn´t listen to it and she was led out of the room from Larek, who didn´t have a strong stomach for that. They could still hear Marianna in the corridor and it echoed through the halls. But then suddenly it just stopped. Relieved Vilandra and Larek breathed out. Marianna had finally passed out from the pain. Hopefully she was better by tomorrow morning. At least Rath and Zan were with her and would look that she was treated properly. Vilandra didn´t have the strength to stay on her feet any longer. She just wanted to fall in her bed and sleep forever. Or just as long until she noticed that she just dreamed badly and everything she went through was only a nightmare. Larek brought her to her door and then went to his own home to see if his parents were better. He was thankful that his parents couldn´t come to the ball, because of a illness that kept them tied to the bed. He would thank everyday for that little miracle and he would try to be a better son from now on. After all you never how much time you still have with your parents.

Rath was still at Mariannas bedside, althrough she had lost her consciousness a few minutes ago. But he didn´t want her to be alone, he promised her that he wouldn´t leave her and he would keep that promise. He would never let the rest of his family out of his sight again and he would do everything to protect the few people he loved. Now the wellfare of all was lying on his shoulder and it would get hard, because he knew that it a war was starting soon. Tonight was just a small warning and it almost cost him his whole family, the next time it was their turn to send a warning. And he swore that they would loose everything from this attack. Khivar may had won this fight, but the battle wasn´t over yet and Rath would put everything to it to win this war. And if he would die in the process. But he would take Khivar and everyone, who was responsible for all this death and destruction, with him.

" How is she?", a female voice was startling him out of his thoughts.

Slightly alarmed he looked up and realized it was the girl Marianna said had a crush on him. Too bad that he couldn´t remember her name. " She will be better. At least I hope so".

Corly took a chair and placed him beneath Mariannas bed opposite Rath. Slowly she stroked her face with her hand. " She saved my life".

Rath found it strange that a servant showed so much emotion towards a royality. Maybe she just felt gratitude for Marianna. " You´re not the only one. If it wasn´t for her, much more would have died tonight".

" That´s not what I mean. She healed me with her hand", to emphrase her point stood up and lifted her shirt to show Rath her bandage, which was covering her bullet wound, just a little over her belly button.

Rath eyed it exactly. What was the nutcase talking about? Marianna had healed her with her hand? Was she mental? Nobody had the power to heal a wound just with laying on of hands. " Maybe the injury wasn´t as bad as you thought".

" Then how do you explain that I have a bullet hole in the front and an exit wound in the back, but nothing internally is hurt? Why can´t the healer find a trace that the bullet went right through me", Corly turned around and raised the shirt again. There was yet another bandage, a little smaller but it was there.

Rath was speechless for about a second or so. Then he glanced at Marianna again. Where did she hide all this strength in this petite body? Did she even know how much power she really possessed? But why couldn´t she heal herself then. Why didn´t she try to heal his family instead of saving this girl she barely knew? " Why did she save you actually?".

Corly pulled her shirt down and sat on the chair again. " I took the bullet which was meant for her. That´s what sisters do for each other".

At that Raths head snapped in her direction. Did he hear her correctly? Sister? " What are you talking about? She has no sister".

" Yes she does. We share the same father. Just that my mother was an affair and she had to flee before he would know that she was pregant with his child. My mother just told me that a few days ago", Corly

was a bit uncomfortable talking about that with Rath. Actually it was not the topic rather than the fact that he listened to her.

Rath tried to digest the information he received. So Khivar had an affair with another woman, which got pregnant from him. Then she ran away because of that and was living under his uncles kingdom since then. But that meant she knew Khivar rather well and could provide them with vital information. " Where is your mother now?".

Corly glanced at the ground and choked back a sob. " She´s dead. She was near the explosion".

" I´m sorry about that", Rath didn´t know what more he could say. He wasn´t eloquent like Zan. He usually said the wrong things to the wrong times. But he knew what she went through right now and he could understand why she was so worried about Marianna. She was the only family she had right now.

Corly arose from her seat pretty slowly. She was tired and the wound wasn´t fully healed. It was starting to hurt again. " I know you don´t know me or owe me anything. But do me a favour and take care of Marianna. She´s all I have now".

" I´ll do that", Rath watched how she walked to a bed at the end of the room. And he thought about if it was worse to not have much and lose it or if it was worse to own everything and then to lose it. But in fact it wasn´t important how much you possessed, it was painful no matter your status. With that he turned back to Marianna, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Tenderly he caressed her cheek with his hand and just watched her. It was unbelievable what the healers could do, there wasn´t any indication that she was unjured anymore on her face. The laceration was gone and so were the other scratches and abrasions. Even her palms, which seemed to be burned from a hot object, were completely healed. The only thing that would hurt tomorrow was her shoulder. Althrough it was put back, the arm would still pain her for a few days. To prevent her from moving it, they put a sling around her neck and laid her arm it in. " Who did this to you? Who would dare to touch you?".

**Other side of the planet**

Nikolai and his companion were just arriving at the palace. They were slightly out of breath, because Nikolai couldn´t walk without help and his friend had to drag him. Everybody was already waiting for them. Khivar was standing in the door and eyed them rather angry. They should have been back hours ago like the other soldiers. He didn´t care that his son looked like a walking wound, if he wasn´t careful it was his problem. But he was waiting and nobody did that to him. Injuries were no excuse in his eyes. He waited already too long for this and he had no patience.

" What kept you so long?".

Nikolai looked confused at his father. Didn´t he see all his wounds and that he needed help to move? " I couldn´t walk quicker. I came here as fast as I could".

" Get your useless ass in gear faster the next time", Khivar didn´t work out a plan so that he failed because his son couldn´t defend himself against his enemy. " Who battered you actually?"

Nikolai debatted with himself if he should be honest with his father or if he should lie to him. When he told him the truth he would get punished for sure, because he didn´t do what he was ordered to, but on the other hand if he some other soldier told his father that he saw Marianna he would lose his head. " It was Marianna".

Khivar observed his son to see if he told him a lie. But he couldn´t detect a hint that would show him that he was lying. " But I thought you killed her".

" So was I. But I obviously missed her and she could save herself in time. I don´t know", if his father knew that he purposely missed her, he would be killed like his mother. Or that a little part of him couldn´t kill his sister, even if they just shared the same mother. If he wanted he could have killed her without her knowing it when she mourned about the loss of her father. But he didn´t, because in some situation she resembled their mother. It didn´t matter how cruel someone was, no one had the guts to kill their own mother. Even him and no matter how hard he wanted to do it.

Khivar wasn´t happy about the information. He was obviously wrong to give his son this task. He wasn´t ready for it. " I´m very disappointed in you. And if I wouldn´t need you, you would already be dead. But because I don´t have the time nor the mood for a execution I will give you another chance to please me".

" And that would be?", actually Nikolai didn´t want to know it. He could picture it already. But he wanted to save his own life.

Khivar got a scary sparkle in his eyes. " I want you to use your connection with Vilandra to manipulate her so that she will go against her family"

" What? I´m not that powerful. I don´t know how to do that", his father couldn´t be serious. He had great power, but that was beyond him. He never tried to use his power from such a distance. How should that work at all?

Khivars face screwed to a horrible grimace. " Then I suggest you find it out or you will meet your mother faster than you think". With that he turned around and walked back to his room.

Nikolai, which was still supported from his companion, could only stare after his father. Now he understood why Marianna was blooming on the other side. There was no one who ignored or mistreated you. He never saw how his father was in reality until now. And he was always trying to be like his father. But if it meant he would lose his soul or what made him a person, then he didn´t want it anymore. In that moment he wished that Marianna would have killed him like she wanted. This hell here was worse than the death could ever be. Just as that thought was finished his friend was releasing his arm, which was laying on his neck and let him crash to the floor really painfully.

" What was that for?".

His friend looked at him in disbelief and anger, like it was obvious why he did that. " How could you keep that from me. Marianna was alive all this time and you let me suffer. And before you try to give me this bullshit about I didn´t know it, leave it, I won´t believe it anyway".

" I don´t know what you´re talking about, Lykus. I think your imagine things", Nikolai tried to stand up on his own, but failed miserably. His feet weren´t ready to take his weight again. Couldn´t have Lykus waited till he was in his room or better in the invalid wing to drop him?

Lykus was sure that his friend lied to him. After all he still could feel Marianna and that would explain why he could do that. Finally he had the prove that he wasn´t crazy or just imagine things. " No, you´re not getting away with that. I want answers. I won´t help you until you told me the truth".

" Alright. I didn´t kill Marianna like I was supposed to. Happy now".

Lykus was on the brink to kill Nikolai. He could have spared him the heartache and the regrets and he didn´t say anything to him. That bastard let him mourn the loss of his supposedly dead fiance. " Why didn´t you say something. I thought you were my friend".

" I couldn´t say anything. If someone would have heard it I would have lost my life for that", althrough that didn´t sound that bad anymore. It could have saved him this trouble and the injuries. And the revelation that his father was cold hearted bastard.

Lykus made a sound that sounded like a snort and laughter together. " Why I´m not surprised that you only think about yourself", he didn´t want to talk to Nikolai anymore, therefore he turned around and made his way out the door.

" Where are you going?", what did he want to do? He couldn´t just let him lying there on the floor.

Lykus twisted his head to the side and glanced hateful at his former friend. " I will sneak to the other side and look for Marianna. Then I´ll talk to her and bring her back".

" Do you think my father will allow it? She would be dead the minute she stepped foot in here", and Nikolai should know it. His father gave the order to shoot her even before she made common cause with the enemy.

Lykus knew that Nikolai had a point there. But he would think about that when he had Marianna where she was supposed to be. Namely here with him. " I will plan something when it´s time for it".

Nikolai had to stop him somehow. " What if she doesn´t want to come back? Did you think about that?".

That stopped Lykus immediatly. He turned around and stared at Nikolai. " How do you mean? Why wouldn´t she come back with me. I´m her fiance after all?".

" Not anymore. I saw her with the son of the commander. They were very much in love and pretty much familiar with each other, if you know what I mean".

Lykus couldn´t believe that. Marianna wouldn´t do that to him. Even with the currently circumstances. She was the most faithful soul he knew. " No. Your making this up to stop me".

" If you want prove than go. But don´t let yourself get caught from Rath. He´s very possessive of her and I wouldn´t want to fight against him in the mood he is now", Nikolai watched Rath and he could access a few information from Vilandras mind about him. He wasn´t someone you wanted to piss off. And now that his family was dead his rage would probably be enough to shredd somebody to pieces and that without using weapons.

Lykus was wavering between listening to Nikolai or listening to his heart. On the one hand he wanted to see for himself if it was true what he was told, but on the other hand he didn´t want to know if Marianna was really cheating on him with another man. " I will take the risk".

Nikolai shook his head, at least as much as he could with him lying on the floor like a carpet. " Good luck with that. But don´t get yourself killed from Rath".

" Oh don´t worry. I won´t", Lykus would make sure that Rath was out of the picture before he would talk to Marianna. Then she didn´t have another choice, besides going back and marry him finally.

TBC


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26 When the rain beginns to fall**

The next day the whole kingdom was in deep mourning because of the death of so many people and the almost erasement of the royal family. Every resident came to the palace and eyed the destruction of the attack . Some were openly crying and others just laid their hands on their hearts and prayed. Prayed that the death of this many would be revenged. The carcasses which had been lying on the grass outside the castle, were finally with their beloved ones and all that was left behind were the imprints of their bodies on the grass. Parts of the stone walls were still lying where they fell down, broken bits of glass from the windows was scattered almost to the outer wall. Everyone was shocked about the appearance of the castle, which was until now the eye catcher of this kingdom. But at the moment it looked more like a wreckage than a properly housing for the royal family. On the inside it looked a little better. The soldier and most of the surviving servants had worked all night to get rid of the havoc and tried to make the ball room and other rooms that looked like a battlefield more presentable. The major part of the broken furniture, the curtains and tablecloth were either replaced with another or just thrown away. Nothing should remind what happened here the night before, especially for the kids, who were gone through enough. Nolak observed the progress and looked after that everything went smoothly. He wanted to spare the children to have to take care of that themself. After all they would still have enough to do in the near future. When he was sure that his soldiers were capable to do their work alone he made his way to check up on Marianna. She was the one who suprised him the most last night. She stepped up to the enemy, in her case probably family or friends, without a weapon at hand and still came back alive. Not even he would have had the guts to do that and he had years of experience, apart from the fact that he was older and bodily superior. And what he heard from a few soldiers she saved so many lifes during the attack. She really was a born warrior like Mael always told him and now he believed that. She earned all his respect and not everyone did that. Suddenly he was thrown out of his thoughts when he bumped into someone. Startled he looked up at the person which was standing in his way.

" What are you doing out of bed so early? You should still rest".

Marianna looked at him like he was crazy. What did he think he was? Her father? She was old enough to know what she was doing. " I don´t have time to rest. Besides I´m feeling fine".

Nolak looked at her left arm, which was lying in a sling. That was her definition of fine? Quick he shoot his hand forward and poked her shoulder really hard. The cry that followed was extremly loud and almost woke the whole building. " Yeah. I see that".

Marianna glared at Nolak. Alright she wasn´t fine, but she felt better than yesterday and that was a wonder in itself, considering the circumstances. " I don´t have time to argue with you. So I suggest you move out of my way before I have to get nasty".

" You recovered really fast, considering that you couldn´t phrase a normal sentence last night", althrough he was glad the Marianna acted more like herself this morning, he was worried that she tried to repress her memories.

Marianna didn´t remember anything after she crashed at the big tree. She just woke up this morning in this strange bed, she laid when she first came into the castle. At first she thought it was just a dream, but then she saw the other wounded persons lying besides her and the memory of last night came crashing back to her. Followed from this deep sated hatred and the thought to destroy something. " I was in shock. I don´t remember anything anymore".

Nolak hoped that she just forgot the part where she was brought here and not the actual battle itself. They had to find out what happened when she disappeared. " Can you remember why you chased after Vilandras boyfriend?".

Marianna was thrown back to the spot where she tried to keep Mael from crashing to the floor, because he was stabbed from Nikolai. She relived every part of it again. The cocky smile of her brother and the rage that seethed in her body. " He killed Mael and I wanted to take revenge for that".

" Why would Vilandras boyfriend kill the commander?", Nolak didn´t understand that. He seemed to be nice guy and he obviously felt something for Vilandra, otherwise he wouldn´t have got the blessing from her father.

Marianna wiped a few tears, which had leeked from her eyes without her noticing it, from her face. " Because he isn´t who he appeared to be. He´s a soldier in Khivars army. To be exact he is his son"

Nolak was left breathless for a moment. That twist he didn´t see coming. But that would mean he was Mariannas brother. However before he could say something a sound behind them disturbed them. Immediately he looked over Mariannas shoulder, while she turned her head around and they both noticed simultaneously the form of Vilandra. She was pretty pale and her eyes were wide open. Obviously she overheard their conversation.

" It´s all my fault, isn´t it".

Instantly Marianna twirled around and went to Vilandra. " No it´s not. Don´t say that".

" But you just said that Davico was not who he appeared to be. Why do you think he did that? Because he wanted information from me. He used me", Vilandra hid her face behind her hands and began to cry.

Marianna tried to embrace her with her good arm. " You couldn´t know that. He´s a really good actor. He even would have me fooled, if I wouldn´t have known him better".

At that Vilandra dropped her hands from her face and her eyes glistened with her tears. " I killed my parents. It was my fault that they were killed", with that Vilandra pushed Marianna aside and stormed away.

Marianna didn´t think long about what to do, before she broke out in a run herself. She left a rather baffled Nolak behind and tracked after a distressed Vilandra. On her way she dashed past Larek and Rath who seemed to be on their way to her actually. But she didn´t pay attention to them and pushed her body faster forward. She thought that they would stay back and wait for her. At least until she heard them screaming her name and their steps following her. Great. She didn´t need an audience for her talk with Vilandra. When she made it almost to the door, which led to the garden outside she used her powers to let Rath trip over his own feets and fall. During his way to the ground he tried to grasp Larek to prevent him from crashing down. Unfortunately for them Larek lost his balance and they both landed with their faces on the floor. Without turning around to look if someone was hurt Marianna raced through the door and stopped immediately at the entrance. Slightly out of breath she stood back and watched how someone was comforting Vilandra, who was sitting with her head down on the bench near the fountain. And that someone was familiar to her.

" Get your hands off of her".

Startled Lykus jumped from his place and looked back. For a moment he didn´t know what he should say or if he should do something. He thought that the girl sitting on this bench was Marianna. He was open and closing his mouth like a fish and if the situation wouldn´t have been so complicated Marianna would have laughed about that. " I thought...I mean...I was so sure...".

" What do you want here? Finishing what the others couldn´t?", Marianna couldn´t believe that he had the nerve to show up here after what happened. Truth to be told, she didn´t want to know what his reason was for coming, but he sure wasn´t going back anymore.

Lykus removed himself from Vilandra and walk in her direction. " No. Do you think I would come here without backup to attack you? You should know me better than that".

" I thought once that I knew you. But now I´m not so sure anymore", Marianna was torn between her instinct, which told her to tackle him down and her heart, which told her that she should listen first and then tackle him.

Lykus suddenly began to smile, something Marianna had rarely seen on him. " You still know me. I haven´t changed".

" But I have. I´m not the girl you grew up with", Marianna got nervous and her heart started fluttering in her chest. Damn. Her feelings for him hadn´t disappeared like she thought. There was still a part that loved him. Even if it was a small part.

Lykus stopped in front of Marianna and touched her cheek with his hand. " I don´t care about that. I´m just relieved that your alive", he started to caress it with his thumb." Do you know how devasted I was when I heard about your death? I thought I lost part of myself".

Marianna wanted to stop him. She shouldn´t do that, she wasn´t in love with him anymore. She loved Rath now and nothing Lykus would try could keep her from this. " I´m sorry for causing you any pain. But you have to move on. That´s all in the past now".

" We could still have a future together. My feelings for you haven´t changed. I love you", slowly Lykus bend forward, prepared to kiss Marianna.

In an instant she pushed him away from her. How dare he come here and try to seduce her. She noticed that Vilandra, which was still present, watched the scene between them rather interested. Why didn´t she went inside to get help? " But I don´t love you. Not any longer. I don´t think I loved you at all"

At that Lykus´ face changed from friendly to angry. His whole demeanour seemed to change drastically. " Is it because of your new boyfriend? This Rath?".

Marianna was taken aback from the outburst. But thankfully she was saved from answering his question in the form of Rath and Larek, which was storming through the door and were heading furiously in their direction. And it got worse the moment Rath noticed that someone not him was touching his girl. Even Larek seemed to be pissed off. Something Marianna didn´t see on him and she was a little stunned. Immediately she stepped back from Lykus and made her way near Vilandra. Just in case there would be a fight. She was still wounded partly and the other unjuries were just healed, hence she wanted to avoid any kind of situation which could harm her again.

" Did somebody call my name?", Rath went straight to Lykus. He disliked him, althrough he didn´t know him. But something told him that he was trouble. And Rath was just in the mood for a fight.

Lykus twisted his head in Mariannas direction. That was his replacement? " You´re sleeping with him? Because of him you betrayed your family?".

" I did not betray my family. They betrayed me", Marianna was afraid of Raths reaction. He wasn´t in the best mood, judging after his expression. And that her ex fiance was here wouldn´t help the situation.

Rath finally stood in front of Lykus and eyed him from head to toe. That was her ex fiance then? He didn´t seemed to be a threat to him. He could take him with just one of his arms. " I suggest you bail while you still can or I´m forced to harm you".

" Is that a threat? Did you win Marianna over with that charm?", Lykus wasn´t impressed from Rath. He was just talk but no action.

Rath balled his fist and was prepared to smash his opponents face until nobody could regnorize him anymore. What did that miserable wretch think he tried to do here? He obviously wasn´t the smartest cookie in the jar. " I´m not in the mood to waste my time on some little wannabe warrior. I have actually more important things to do".

" Yeah. Like what? Cleaning the mess which we left behind or counting the dead bodies", Lykus couldn´t contain his smirk any longer. Rath was so predictable.

Rath reacted instantly. With one swift move he gripped Lykus throat and squeezed it really strong. Vilandra, Larek and Marianna watched that with mouths and eyes wide open. It didn´t look good for Lykus, because Rath was taller, bodily superior and had no conscience to hold him back at the moment. " Tell me one reason why I shouldn´t kill you. Just one and I might change my mind about choking you".

But Lykus couldn´t utter a word, because Rath was crushing his windpipe and he needed all his strength to keep his awareness. He realized that no matter what he said now, he would definitely die. Until he saw from the corner of his eyes that Marianna was trying to stop Rath. " You´re not a murderer".

Rath was confused why Marianna said that to him. He turned his face to her without losening the grip on Lykus, which was fighting for air. " What?".

" You wanted one reason why you shouldn´t kill him. I named one. You´re not a murderer", Marianna couldn´t allow that Rath would do something that he would regret someday. It was one thing to kill someone in war. But just because of jeaulousy? Rath would probably never revover from that.

Rath couldn´t believe his ears. She wasn´t serious, she couldn´t be. " You´re siding with him? After all we shared!".

" I´m not siding with him. I´m just trying to look out for you", why wasn´t she surprised that Rath understood everything wrong again. She just wanted to prevent him for making the biggest mistake in his life.

Rath seemed to think for a moment. Everybody was holding their breath and waited what he would do in this situation. At first it looked like he wouldn´t listen to Marianna. But then he released Lykus without saying anything and tramped angry away.

The others looked worried after his retreating back. Then Larek and Vilandra turned to Marianna. They couldn´t believe what just happened here. Perplexed they eyed her like she was a stranger to them. Why did she do that? Why didn´t she let Rath kill him? He was after all the enemy.

Marianna noticed the glances, but she ignored them. She had time to explain everything when they were alone. Slowly she bend down to Lykus until she was close enough to talk to him without that the other two could hear them. " Don´t think that I did it for you. If I wouldn´t care so much about Rath you would be dead. That was just a warning. The next time you will have to reckon with me and believe me when I say I´m not so charitable like Rath".

Lykus scambled away from her. The look in her eyes scared him. Now he understood what she tried to tell him. She really was changed since he last saw her. When he finally made it back on his feet he ran as fast as possible.

" And tell your king that he should prepare himself for his death", Marianna screamed after him. Then she twirled around and saw to Larek and Vilandra, which were still standing there and were rather confused looking. " What?!"

Larek was the first to recover and took a closer look at Marianna. " Is everything alright with you?".

" Of course. I´m just peachy", althrough the words were not matching her tone. She was extremly pissed at the moment and it wouldn´t take long before she exploded.

Vilandra couldn´t keep the question for herself any longer. So without waiting she blurred it out. " Why did you spare his life?".

Marianna rubbed her face, like she wanted to wipe dirt from it. How could she explain something that was partly a mystery to her too? " It wouldn´t have been right".

" Do you still love him?", everybody was surprised about the question from Larek. He seemed to see more than he let on.

Marianna was scared to tell them the truth. What would they think from her when she would say that a part would probably always love him. Not in the romantically way, but he was a friend, something like family actually. They shared everything with each other. She couldn´t just erase all the memories they had in common. She knew him almost her whole life and that was pretty long. " No. But he was at one point everything for me. I can´t just forget that".

Vilandra thought about her situation at the moment and she could relate to her. No wonder she liked her so much. They both were more alike than they thought. Just that Marianna wasn´t responsible for the death of her whole family. " I know what you mean".

Larek was slightly out of the loop. What were they talking about? Maybe he should go looking for Rath before he did something stupid or worse. Besides he had the impression that he was unwelcomed here and he didn´t want to listen how two girls started talking about their feelings. Without saying anything he walked away.

Marianna waited till Larek was out of their sight, before she embraced Vilandra and sat with her on the bench again. " You´re not responsible for what happened. I hope you know that".

" I wish I could believe that. I was the one that opened the door to the enemy. If I wouldn´t have been so blinded by love I could have stopped everything", Vilandra started to cry again. The knowledge that she could have prevented all was depressing her.

Marianna caressed her back tenderly with her hand. If somebody should feel guilty it should be her. After all she was the one who had the feeling that something would happen and she didn´t do anything against it. " I don´t think it would have made any difference. The attack would have happened, even if you didn´t have started something with Nikolai".

" That was his real name?", Vilandra didn´t think about his true identity till now. Was it only just a few weeks since she met him? She was so sure that he loved her like she loved him. What a fool she was to believe all the things he said to her.

Marianna startled for a moment when Vilandra laid her head on her shoulder. She didn´t want to imagine what went through her mind just now. It was painful to loose your parents, but when you thought you could have stopped that it got worse. " Yeah that´s his real name".

" I thought he really felt something for me. He was so sweet and caring", Vilandra wiped the tears off of her face with the back of her hand. How he mislead her and she didn´t even notice it. She would never fall in love or look at a men again. From now on she would guard her heart and don´t let someone get close to her.

" I think a part of him was in love with you. He´s just so obsessed with pleasing his father that he didn´t realize how many people he hurt by the way", Marianna just described her relationship with Nikolai. He was always so busy with kissing his fathers butt that he didn´t notice what happened around him. Sometimes she wondered if he would be different when he would have spent more time with their mother or his father would have been nicer.

Vilandra shook her head. Actually she didn´t want to rack her brain with all this question if he really loved her or not. After all they had to worry about more important things at the moment. Namely what they should do now and when they would bury their parents. " Let´s not talk about it anymore. I just want to forget last night ever happened".

Marianna was relieved that they didn´t have to talk about it anymore. It just brought more question and even if she grew up with Nikolai, she didn´t understand him yet. Maybe she would never figure him out or get to know his inner workings. Carefully Marianna moved her shoulder, because it started to pain actually. Vilandras head seemed to be heavier than she thought. " Where´s Zan by the way? I didn´t see him today.".

" I don´t know. I wanted to look after him, but he wasn´t in his room", Vilandra just shrugged her shoulders.

Mariannas instinct were immediately on alert. That didn´t sound good. After his condition last night it wasn´t good to leave him alone for too long. You didn´t know what he would do to himself. Slowly Marianna untangled Vilandras head from her shoulder and arose from her position. Great now her butt fell asleep. The bench was really uncomfortable if you sat on it for a longer time. " Then we´re going to search for him. He can´t be too far already".

Vilandra made a face that wanted to say that she didn´t have the nerve to go hunting for her brother. But she didn´t want to be alone right now and she didn´t have something better to do anyway. Therefore she arose from the bench and followed Marianna back in the castle. On their way they noticed that every soldier who was not hurt and many citizen were heading to the war room. Both were a bit suspicious about that and if they would have had the time they would have probably asked what that was all about. But at the moment they had other things on their minds. And so they continued their way. In the corridor where the stairs would have been they separated and went in different direction. Vilandra took the common rooms where the whole family was usually and Marianna took the bed rooms. She was sure that he had to be somewhere. He wouldn´t just disappear without anyone knowing about it. At least a guard or someone other would have seen him. But after she rummaged through every room she could think of, she was sure that she wouldn´t find him here. She hoped that Vilandra had more luck with her search. However when she came to the last door, Avas room, she heard crying noises coming from it. Carefully she opened the door and looked inside. And there Zan was, with a beautiful white dress in his hands and his face buried in it. Strong sobs were shooking his whole body and the sound he was making told from deep sorrow. Quietly Marianna stepped into the room and made her way to Zan, who was sitting on the floor in front of the bed. With caution she placed herself besides him. For a few seconds Marianna tried to say something to him, but she didn´t know what. She didn´t have the strong bond which she had with Rath, Larek or Vilandra with him.

" What do you want?", Zan had finally noticed that he wasn´t alone anymore. But he didn´t lift his head or dropped the dress. Even if the sobs were not so strong like before.

Marianna was tempted to lay her hand on his shoulder to show him that he wasn´t alone. Yet she couldn´t. She didn´t know if he wanted it or not. " We were worried because you weren´t in your room".

" Now that you found me you can stop worrying and leave me alone", Zan wasn´t in the mood to listen to someone who wanted to comfort him, althrough nobody knew how he felt. He just wanted to be alone and mourn. He didn´t need somebody telling him that everything would get better. Because nothing would get better any time soon. He lost everything and he didn´t know why he still lived actually. The world in which he lived all his life crumbled in front of his eyes and he couldn´t stop it.

Marianna knew, contrary to what Zan believed, what he went through at the moment. She herself made the same experience. Only it happened the second time to her. " It´s not good for you to be alone right now".

Finally Zan raised his head and looked at Marianna with his tearstained eyes. " What do you know about what it´s good for me or not? You don´t know how I feel".

" Really. Let me review for you. I saw my mother getting murderer by someone who I thought was my father. He gave the order to kill me and they almost made it. Then I found people who I cared very deeply for, just to see them die, too. And I learned something interesting. My father wasn´t khivar but Hewik, a man who showed my everything what I know today. Do you know what I did to him? I killed him", Marianna didn´t plan to say that much, but she was angry that he was so busy with his own pain that he didn´t notice that others were suffering, too. He wasn´t the only one who lost everything in that attack.

Zan was speechless for a moment. He forgot completely to whom he was talking to. " I´m sorry. But I just don´t want to talk about it at the moment. Give me time, alright?".

" Alright. If you´re ready to talk, you know where to find me", quickly she squeezed Zans shoulder and jump to her feet. With a little wave she disappeared through the door.

Just as she stepped into the corridor, Nolak almost run her over. He seemed to be in a hurry and was looking for someone. Immediately when he spotted her he went straight to her and grasped her good arm. " Just the person I was looking for. Where were you? We´re all waiting for you".

Marianna was stunned. Why were they looking for her? Hopefully they didn´t blame her for the attack and wanted to execute her in front of the whole kingdom. She had a queasy feeling in her stomach. " I was just looking after Zan".

Without a reply Nolak dragged her with him. They were heading for the war room and Marianna got confuser the closer they came to it. What was happening in there? The moment she set one foot in the room she was amazed how full it was. She didn´t know that so many people would fit in there. The tables and the chairs got removed and the space looked, despite the crowd, huge. Nolak didn´t give her enough time to soke everything up and dragged her further in the room. Then he placed her directly besides Rath, who glared angrily at her.

" Glad you could join us", he threw nastily in her direction. After that he turned his attention to the people in front of him. " You probably know the reason I wanted this meeting", he waited until he saw that everyone was nodding before continuing. " Last night our kingdom was attacked from our enemy. Many people lost their lives and there will be probably more if we don´t do anything now".

A older man in the back raised his hand. " And what it our task in all this exactly?"

Rath glanced at him with a stony face. " We need everybody who is old enough to hold a weapon or is still in the position to do that. Last night was just a little battle. We are facing a war and therefore we need all the help we can get".

" But it will be dangerous. Many of us have family or at least a wife at home", a man of middle age added. A few men agreed thereupon.

Rath thought about that. And he knew the risk of a war. But they had no different option than fighting. " Everybody who thinks it´s too dangerous for him is free to go. We´re not forcing anybody. But everybody who thinks it´s worth the risk to protect your family from harm is welcomed".

" And when do we start?", a soldier in the front asked.

Rath looked around the room and observed the mostly frightened or determined faces. " Now. We want to attack as fast as possible". That earned him a snort, which came right besides him. Furious he faced Marianna, who was just standing there with her arms crossed over her chest and a bored face. " What?".

" I didn´t say anything".

Rath didn´t buy that. She had obviously something to say. " If you have anything to add your free to do so".

Marianna was a bit surprised about his attitude towards her. Alright she knew that he was still a bit angry with her, but he didn´t need to be so rough. " I´m just worried about the date for our attack. That´s all".

" And what´s wrong with it?", Rath hadn´t the time nor the patience for her little game that she always played with him. And after the scene out in the garden his trust in her sunk a little lower. He wasn´t so sure anymore if Marianna was on their side or not.

Marianna changed her stance and let her arms fall down her side now. " Don´t you think after what happened Khivar won´t expect a attack immediately. He may be cruel but he isn´t dumb".

Rath inspected her like she said something rather stupid. Did she think he didn´t know that. But they had to take that risk. " If you´re so smart. Why don´t you come up with a better plan?".

" Me? You´re really willing to trust me on this?", Marianna saw the distrust in his eyes the moment she stepped foot in the room. He was unsure about her position in this war, althrough he should her know better now.

Rath thought about that. If he trusted her enough to lead a battle? Of course. But if it was their soldiers she would lead? Just partly. " Actually no. But I have no choice right now".

" If that´s your opinion about me, then I don´t have to be here any longer", Marianna was so sick and tired of this fight. Everytime something happened he started to mistrust her. When would he finally accept that she wasn´t here to get information or to spy for the other side? Without saying anything more she turned around and left the room.

Nolak faced Rath pretty confused. What just happened here and what did he miss actually? They should keep together right now and not attack each other in front of all the people. That wasn´t the reason why Mael nominated them both as leading commander. " Why did you do that? She risked her life last night and you have nothing better do to than making an assault upon her".

" You don´t know what she did before she came here", Rath was still hurt that she put the life of her ex fiance over his. If she really loved him she would have let him kill that bastard. But no she prevented him from doing it.

Nolak shook his head. " And I don´t care. She earns a little respect. Did you know that she faced her brother yesterday? What she had to sacrifice just that she could protect the people she loved? I don´t know about you, but I wouldn´t want to fight against my own family".

Rath was shocked about the things he heard. He didn´t think about what it was for her. He just saw the enemy. But she saw friends or family. People she grew up with or hung out. " I completely forgot about that".

" I know you do. But try to keep that in mind the next time you see her", Nolak glanced around him and eyed all the people who were still standing there and listening to all the things they said. Obviously they were all interested what happened now or they would have gone already. " I think Marianna has a point. We shouldn´t rush into anything. The surprise should be on our side this time. Besides it gives us enough time to train those who don´t know how to handle a weapon". Nolak turned to Rath and waited for a sign of approval. When he got a nod from him, he faced the people again. " Exercise is everyday at noon in the trainings room. Those who are willing to help have to meet there".

A general murmur was sweeping through the room and everybody were discussing what they should do and what they could do. Most of the younger men were immediately ready to join the soldiers, while the olders were still unsure. Nolak knew that it wasn´t a decision that was easy to make. It needed time to think about all the possibilities and the risk. Therefore he dismissed all and watched them retreating out the door. When he was alone with Rath he took him aside, because he wanted to have a talk with him. After all he went through hell last night and maybe he needed someone to talk to.

**Outside **

Marianna wandered through the garden and observed the destruction that happened here. It wasn´t as bad as the front or the inside, but it was noticable that some fighting was done here. The fountain was missing the head of the snake and the dragon lost his wings. Flowers were trampled and the grass was crushed under the feets that walked over it. Marianna tried to repair most of the damage to the flowers. With the help of her powers she attempted to let them bloom again. Maybe then she could keep her mind occupied long enough to not think about the scene with Rath. About the icy glare he threw in her direction or the hostile comments. What possessed him to think she wasn´t on their side? It couldn´t be just that she kept him from killing someone. Even if Lykus wasn´t an innocent, he still was a living person. And he was unarmed, which put him into a disadvantage. You don´t kill someone who can´t fight back. It isn´t right to do that. Maybe it was a sign that they weren´t meant to be or her punishment for murdering her father. Slowly Marianna rubbed her eyes furiously with the back of her right hand. She didn´t allow herself to cry now. Crying wouldn´t bring her anything at the moment. It only showed others that she was vulnerable or they would think she was weak. She didn´t want that, especially not at times like these. Suddenly a hand was grasping her shoulder. Immediately she twirled around and gripped the hand rather rough. Thankfully she had good reflexes or else she would have hurt Vilandra, who was looking at her slightly startled.

" Is everything alright?".

Marianna released her hand from her tight grip. " Yeah. I´m just a little jittery", she looked at Vilandras wrist, that was a little red. " I´m sorry about that".

Vilandra eyed it herself for a few seconds. It didn´t hurt at all. " Forget it", with a gesture that was showing that it didn´t matter she was ending this topic. " Where were you? I was searching for you. I haven´t found Zan yet and I wanted to know if you have".

" Yeah. He was in Avas bedroom", Marianna was thinking about the picture of Zan sitting alone in this big room by himself and crying his eyes out. It must be devasting to loose his lover so tragically that way. " We should leave him alone for awhile. He needs time to progress everyting right now".

Vilandra was glad to hear that her brother was still in the castle. But she was worried about his condition. Zan was always a pretty emotional person ever since she could think about. That the death of his soulmate would destroy him was no wonder for her. However she trusted Marianna on this and would keep her distant from him, until he himself decided to talk. " Ok. I will tell the others about it".

" Do that".

Vilandra took a closer look at Marianna. For the first time she noticed the red eyes. Something seemed to be bothering, aside from the obvious. " What is going on? You don´t look to good right now".

" It´s nothing", after she received a rather unbelieving glance she continued. " Really. Don´t worry about it". But Vilandra wasn´t convinced about it. So Marianna couldn´t do anything, besides telling her what happened. " There was a meeting of the soldiers and citizen of the kingdom. We, or rather Rath, spoke about what he wanted to do right now".

Vilandra listened pretty intently. But when she realized how Marianna just stopped in the middle of it,she got worried. " And what then?".

" Rath was so nasty towards me. Like I´m a traitor or the reason for all this death. It hurts that he thinks so low of me. He even said that he didn´t trust me anymore", Marianna noticed that her hand began to shake like mad. The argument hit her more than she thought.

Vilandra was shocked. How could he say something like that to her? If it wasn´t for Marianna she would have been dead already. She saved the lifes of so many people. And she fought against her own brother. If that didn´t show where her priorities laid then what would? " Oh that bastard. I can´t believe he said that".

Marianna was grateful that Vilandra didn´t think the same about her. It was a good feeling that she still had at least one friend. " I couldn´t either. But it´s true".

Vilandras face was looking like a mask of absolute anger. How dare he attack Marianna. If someone should be blamed for all this, it should be her. After all she was involved with the enemy and invited him to the castle. If Rath wanted to be mad at someone he should be mad at her. " I will talk with him".

" And say what?", Marianna didn´t want Vilandra meddling in her things and maybe making it worse in the process. She was thankful for the help but she would do it alone when the time was right.

Vilandra said the only thing that made Marianna nervous. " The truth".

Marianna was confused. What truth? About what was she actually talking about?" Which would be?".

" What really happened", Vilandra saw the worry in Mariannas eyes. Carefully she laid her hand on her arms. " Don´t worry. I know what I´m doing". With that Vilandra turned around and went inside again.

Marianna watched after her. She hoped that she knew what she was doing. She really hoped so.

TBC


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27 At the crossroad**

Larek was on his way to the training room to look for Rath. He was searching for at least a hour now and he didn´t find him. He thought his friend would be at the shore, where he was almost all the time when he needed time to sort things out just to think about something. But he wasn´t there and at the others places he liked to linger. At the moment he was a little worried about that, because he knew in what condition Rath was and he could be extremely unpredictable if that was the case. What actually meant he needed to prevent him from doing too much trouble or attacking innocent bypasser. Too bad that Larek couldn´t go to Marianna to ask for help, because she wasn´t exactly on friendly terms with Rath and he could guess that she wasn´t keen to search with him. She was probably with Vilandra and told her what Rath did. And he couldn´t blame her. Rath acted really out of line in the meeting and that even trough he had no reason for that. Alright she refrained him from killing this guy, which in his eyes wouldn´t have been so bad. But he understood her motive for doing it. She didn´t want him to act out of an emotion and regret it later, when he thought clearer and realized what he really did. However he understood Rath also. If he would have been in his shoes he would have made the same mistake and killed that bastard without blinking. Through he wouldn´t have done it under the eyes of witnesses. It´s one thing to murder someone, but to do it when three people were standing around watching it? No that wasn´t good. Expect it would have been in a fight over life and death, then it would have made no difference. After all this guy was still in his armour and it didn´t have the crest of King Salems Kingdom on his chest. What implyed that he was from the other side and that meant he was the enemy. Larek shook his head. He shouldn´t think about things that weren´t his problem. When he came out of his thoughts he noticed that Vilandra was heading in his direction really fast and how it looked extremly pissed. Larek observed his escape routes and discovered that there wasn´t even one. He was trapped in the corridor that lead to the training room. The other doors were always locked and there were just two persons with the keys. Unfortunately the keepers were dead and he hadn´t a chance to flee that way. So he stopped in his tracks and waited for the unavoidable.

Vilandra came to a stand just in front of Larek. " Have you seen Rath?".

Inwardly he breathed out. He didn´t even know that he was holding it in the first place. But he was thankfully that she didn´t seem to be mad at him. " I was just looking for him myself. He wasn´t at his usual places".

" Great. If you see him before me, tell him that I want to speak with him. It´s important", without waiting for a reply Vilandra turned around and stomped towards the bed rooms.

Larek stayed back and wiped the imaginary sweat from his forehead. He didn´t envy Rath in the slightest at the moment. He should prepare himself for a pretty uncomfortable talk with Vilandra. She had probably heard what happened in the meeting and wanted to help Marianna. Poor sap. He didn´t want to be on Vilandras bad side, althrough Rath was certainly the only one who could stand up against her. Alright he should finally stop thinking about the problems of others. After all he had his own right now. Namely finding Rath and hamper that he destroyed the remain of the castle. With that thought in mind he continued his way to the training room. But to his disappointment there was nobody present. His friend was official nowhere in this palace and at the spots he usual seeked out when he was upset or confused. What should he do now? Should he send a few soldiers out to find him or should he just wait until Rath decided to come back himself? Thankfully he was spared the hard decision when he saw something that would probably need his help more. Slowly he started to walk in the direction of Marianna, who seemed to be in the process to talk to a few people. To be exact she spoke with three citizen. He couldn´t hear what they were talking about, but it seemed not exactly to be the funniest conversation. When he came closer to them the men were saying goodbye and disappeared. Marianna winked after them and applied her attention to Larek.

" Hey".

Larek didn´t know how he should behave in her presence. " Hey".

" Are you looking for someone?", Marianna felt exactly the same way. She knew that he was Rath´s best friend and would take his side. What wasn´t a problem, after all she would do the same in the exact situation.

Larek rubbed his neck uncomfortable. He felt like an idiot just now. Why was he acting like a teenager who wanted to ask the girl of his dreams for a date?" No. I just wanted to know how you´re doing".

Marianna managed a small smile at that. He was such a sweety sometimes. For the umpteenth time she asked herself why she had to fall for Rath. Larek would have been the better choice. " I will get better", she took a closer look at Larek. " How are you actually?".

" Better than the most here", Larek hated to ask, but he had to. " Did you see Rath somewhere around?".

Marianna was stunned for a moment. Why did he ask her? She was the least person who would know that. " Not since he implied I would play against him".

" That´s not what he said and you know it. He´s just hurting right now and doesn´t know what he´s saying", Larek felt obliged to defend his friend in this cause. He was nasty, there was no doubt, but he didn´t mean half the things he said and will probably regret them as soon as he calmed down. Rath wasn´t a bad person basically.

Marianna really tried to believe it. But she knew Rath really good by now. He didn´t say anything he didn´t mean. Everything he threw in her face wasn´t just a burst of anger or a short circuit reaction. " I felt what he didn´t say and that was more hurtful than the things he actually said. Therefore I made a decision that will be pleasant for anybody".

Larek got pretty worried now. The sadness in her eyes wasn´t just from the loose of her second family or the fight with Rath. There was something else that scared him a little. " What descision?".

" I will go away when the funeral is over. Maybe it is better for everybody", Marianna had made arrangements already. She talked with the person who took care of the burial and by tomorrow evening she would take her belongings and disappear. She didn´t know where yet, but she would find something. Even if she had to sleep in the woods.

Larek gripped her shoulders with both hands. She couldn´t be serious. She couldn´st just bail because she had a little fight with Rath. " You can´t do that. I know you´re upset. But think about what you´re leaving behind".

Marianna tried to break away from his grip. But he wouldn´t let her and just grasped tighter. " And what I´m leaving behind? I just brought destruction and death in this castle. Everybody is better off without me".

" That´s not true. You brought so much joy and laughter. I´ve never saw Rath so happy like when he was with you. Vilandra adores you. And who should laugh about my jokes, even if they´re not funny at all?", Larek couldn´t let that happen. Marianna belonged here and nowhere else. She was part of this family and he knew that the others thought so too. He would do everything in his powers to prevent her from going. Even if he had to lock her in the dungeon forever.

Mariannas eyes filled with her tears and her chin began to quiver. Slowly she lifted her arms and embraced Larek tightly. " That was beautiful. But it doesn´t change anything. I will go and nothing can stop me from it", she pressed him a littler stronger at her body and enjoyed the warmth he gave her. She would probably never feel so loved again and she wanted to soak that up to remember it when she felt lonely. " I will really miss you".

Larek felt like someone was crushing his heart with bare hands. A lump was slowly forming in his throat and tears were threatening to spill from his eyes. " I will miss you too".

Marianna pushed herself carefully from him and looked deep in his tearfilled eyes. " You´re a great person. Don´t let anyone persuade you otherwise", with that said Marianna did something she really wanted to do for a long time, but didn´t because of her feelings for Rath. She kissed him straight on the mouth. It wasn´t long but pretty intensive.

When they both parted from another Larek was speechless for a few seconds, before he realized what just happened. He would have been happy when he wouldn´t know that this was only a goodbye kiss and nothing more. A long while he stared after Marianna, who was walking away from him without turning around. He had to keep her from fullfilling her plan. Now more than ever. She was needed here and she had to see that. But what could he really do? She was stubborn and she didn´t even listen to him. Larek had to think about something really fast, because tomorrow it would be too late for anything. But just when he wanted to visit Nolak, because he seemed to be really fond of Marianna, he detected something that made his blood freezing in his veins and his hair standing up on his neck. Two eyes which were hateful directed on him. Oh shit. Why couldn´t Rath be gone for a little longer? Cautiously Larek walked tardily on the direction of his friend. Maybe he didn´t see anything.

" Hey man, I was looking for you".

Rath raised his right eyebrow at that. His body shifted into a attacking stance and the glare got meaner. " Strange. It seemed to me that you were doing something else. Or do you thought you would find me on Mariannas lips?"

Larek winced under the angry glance. Oh Oh. It seemed that he was in deep trouble. Hopefully Rath would show mercy and let him live. " I know what you´re thinking. But it wasn´t like that. Really".

" Oh yeah. Then explain to me why I saw you kissing my girl just now?", Rath didn´t change his position. On the contrary he appeared more dangerous with his height that seemed to be higher then he really was. Maybe it was a trick of light or because Larek felt really small in that moment.

Larek got slightly nervous and tried to concentrate his attention at something other than the sparkling black eyes that seemed to attempt to burn him to the core. How should he explain that kiss without angering Rath more? " It meant nothing. It was just a kiss under friends. Nothing more, I swear".

Rath stared awhile at his best friend. Apparently he wanted to see if he was saying the truth or if he was lying. Then suddenly his eyes got lighter and his position didn´t appear that threatening anymore. Obviously he passed the lie detector examination. " Why were you nervous then?".

" I knew that you and Marianna weren´t exactly on friendly terms right now and I didn´t know how you would react. She was just saying goodbye to me and I think it was her way of showing me how much I meant to her. Pure platonic of course", Larek was relieved that his friend wasn´t furious at him and he was still alive. But then he regretted the last part when he saw the questioning look on Rath´s face. Oh shit, he forgot that he didn´t knew about Mariannas plan to disappear from their lifes.

Rath felt like someone had sucker punched him in the guts. He knew that he wasn´t just fair to Marianna the last time, but that she wanted to go away because of that? Was that her way to bail from her obligations? " Did she say why she wanted to run off?".

Larek had a pretty good idea why she did that. But he didn´t know if Rath wanted to hear the truth at all. Was it better to know the reason why someone was disappearing forever or was it better to live with the knowledge that you lied to the person you respected? " She said that everybody would be better off without her and that she just brought death and destruction in this castle"

" Didn´t you try to talk her out of that? It´s not her fault that everything is going downhill at the moment".

Larek was startled because of the intensitiy of the words. What did he think he tried to do? Of course he tried to stop her. " I told her that, too. A little more detailed than you. But the meaning behind it is the same".

Rath rubbed his forehead with his right hand. He was so sick of all this shit that was coming his way. How had his father managed this? And why didn´t he ever saw his father losing his patience? " Alright. I will take care of that later. I have to deal with something important at the moment. But after that I will try to talk to Marianna".

Larek felt a new wave of hope sparking in his body. Maybe Rath had more success to stop Marianna from doing something stupid. Besides it wouldn´t hurt for both of them to talk about a few things and clean the air from all the negative feelings towards each other. They didn´t had anything to loose anymore anyway. " Good luck with that".

" Yeah. Thanks", Rath lifted his arm as a sign for leaving and made his way into town. He had to talk with a few citizen about the funeral for his family. He wanted it to be over as soon as possible, so that he had enough time to prepare the soldiers for the upcoming war.

**Evening in the castle**

Vilandra was sitting in front of the mirror on her bureau in her room. She was just looking at her reflection and thinking about all that happened the last 24 hours. Was it just a day ago that her life seemed to be getting better and she finally found someone her parents liked? It felt like a liftime that her life was that easy going and she had everything she wished for. Strange that you know what you had when it was gone.

_Heaven bent to take my hand_

_And lead me through the fire_

_Be the long awaited answer_

_To a long and painful fight_

The worse part in this was that she could have stopped it from happening. If she wouldn´t have tried so hard to find the right person for herself, she would have seen that something wasn´t right. And now she had to live with the knowledge that she had killed her parents for the rest of her life. She would probably forever hunted from the picture of her death mother lying in her own blood or the sad look of her brother when they waited in the dungeon.

_Truth to be told I´ve tried my best_

_But somewhere along the way_

_I got caugth up in all there was to offer_

_And the cost was so much more than I could bear_

Vilandra thought back to the day when she told Marianna about her meeting with Davico or Nikolai how she knew now. Marianna tried to tell her that everything was a bit to fast and in her own way warned her to not rush anything. Why didn´t she listen to her? Why had been the thought anybody could destroy her happiness so impossible to her? She knew that love made blind, but not deaf. Oh god she had been so deep in her fantasies about the rest of her life that she overlooked what happened in the present.

_Though I´ve tried, I´ve fallen_

_I have sunk so low_

_I have messed up_

_Better I should know_

_So don´t come round here_

_And tell me I told you so_

Nikolai was a good actor, she had to give him credit for that. He made her feel so loved and desired. Like she was the only woman he could ever love. And he noticed her as a person, not as princess or the sister of the future king or the prospective wife of Rath or even the beautiful daughter of the Queen. He just saw Vilandra. She liked the attention she got from him and it flattered her that somebody so good looking wanted to be with her without really knowing her. That had been the time her alarm bells should have been ringing. Unfortunately they didn´t.

_We all begin with good intent_

_Love was raw and young_

_We believed that we could change ourselves_

_The past could be undone_

_Be we carry on our backs the burden_

_Time always reveals_

_The lonely light of morning_

_The wound that would not heal_

_It´s the bitter taste of losing everything_

_That I have held so dear_

Vilandra turned her head away from the mirror. She couldn´t look at herself any longer. The person in the reflection wasn´t her anymore. It was the face of a stranger looking back at her and she couldn´t bear the sight. Slowly she made her way to her bed, where she let herself slump on it. With the face in her pillows she began to cry. Cry for all the lost people, the missing opportunities to be with her parents and the loss of her innocent.

_Though I´ve tried, I´ve fallen_

_I have sunk so low_

_I have messed up_

_Better I should know_

_So don´t come round here_

_And tell me I told you so_

**Another room**

Zan was still in the same position Marianna left him that morning. Still in front of Avas bed and still the white dress tightly in his hands. Through his tears were finally tried and the sobs wracking his body had died down. At least for now. His body needed just time to produce more tears he could shed. At the moment every ounce of water was gone. In that place were the pain was before, was just this void now. He didn´t feel anything, everything was numb.

_Did I disappoint you or let you down?_

_Should I be feeling guilty or let the judges frown?_

_´Cause I saw the end before we´d begun,_

_Yes I saw you were blinded and I knew I had won._

_So I took what´s mine by eternal right_

_Took your sould out into the night_

_It may be over but it won´t stop there,_

_I am here for you if you´d only care._

_You touched my heart you touched my soul_

_You changed my life and all my goals_

_And love is blind and that I knew when,_

_My heart was blinded by you_

_I´ve kissed your lips and held your head_

_Shared your dreams and shared your bed_

_I know you well, I know your smell_

_I´ve been addicted to you_

Why did the attack happen just in that moment when everything went really great for him? He only wanted to marry his soulmate and live a happy life with her. In the near future he would have taken the obligation of his father when he would have been to old to do them. But now that was all taken from him. There was no future for him anymore. Not without his beloved Ava on his side. What kind of life would that be anyway?

_Goodbye my lover_

_Goodbye my friend_

_You have been the one_

_You have been the one for me_

Zan felt the smooth material of Avas bridal gown. She would have looked absolutely breathtaking in it. He could still remember the day she brought it. She was so excited about it and she told him how perfectly it fitted her and he would love it too, when he saw it on their wedding day. He pictured her smiling face, which was looking at him so happy. The twinkle in her eyes and the rosy cheeks. Now all what was left of her was this dress and the memory of the time they shared together. And the imagination how their life would have been like. Why did the explosion spare his life? Why didn´t it kill him, too. Then he wouldn´t have to live in this hell.

_I am a dreamer but when I wake_

_You can´t break my spirit – it´s my dreams you take_

_And as you move on, remember me_

_Remember us and all we used to be_

_I´ve seen you cry, I´ve seen you smile_

_Ive watched you sleeping for a while_

_I´d be the father of your child_

_I´d spend a lifetime with you_

_I know your fears and you know mine_

_We´ve had our doubts but new we´re fine_

_And I love you, I swear that´s true_

_I cannot live without you_

They just learned a few days ago that Ava was pregnant. They wanted to wait until after the announcement of their engangement to tell the news their parents. Ava was at first a little worried, because they weren´t married and she wanted to let her parents in the belief that their little daughter was still untouched. But the doubt vanished the moment he told her that her parents would be as happy as they were and it wasn´t like they wouldn´t marry soon. At night they laid awake either in his or in her bed and would think about names for the baby. Ava wanted the name of her grandfather for a boy. But Zan was against it. He didn´t want his son to be called Hamlish. He like the name Xandir, however Ava had her objections. She said that it would sound too much like Zan. Strange that they agreed on the name for a girl. Tehela. That was the Antarian word for sunshine. And if it would have been a girl she would have been the sunshine of this family most certainly.

_Goodbye my lover_

_Goodbye my friend_

_You have been the one_

_You have been the one to me_

Zan pressed the dress tightly at his cheeks and smelled the unmistakable scent of Ava. It was like she would be right here with him. He could still feel how the life drained out of her, how the light died down in her eyes and her soul left her body. In this moment he died with her. A part of him left with her that night, when he held her cold, lifeless body in his arms. He didn´t care about the fight around him or that others died too. He just wanted that Ava opened her eyes and told him that she wouldn´t leave him. She wouldn´t just go away and take his child with her. But that never happened. Her eyes stayed closed and her voice would be forever mute.

_And I still hold your hand in mine_

_In mine when I´m asleep_

_And I will bear my soul in time_

_When I´m kneeling at your feet_

Zan turned his head up to the ceiling, like it would be the sky outside. He balled his fist and stretched them upwards. Then he screamed as loud as he could. " Why did you take them away from me? Why didn´t you take me with them? Why?!".

_I´m so hollow, baby, I´m so hollow_

_I´m so, I´m so, I´m so hollow_

After he vent his anger he moved to his earlier position and buried his face in Avas dress again. Finally the tears he couldn´t shed a few minutes ago were there again. And in the silence of the room he started to cry once more.

**Corridor the same time**

Marianna had taken care of all the formalities for the funeral tomorrow. The kingdom knew about it and everybody was welcomed to attent. The soldiers were informed about the procedure and the coffins in the family mausoleum were prepared using. Now she just wanted to look after everyone else before she made her way to her own bed. She was thankful that she didn´t cross her way with Rath today. She hadn´t the strength to get into a fight with him again. She told Larek that he should inform him about the funeral and when he should be there. Unfortunately Rath was busy with the preperation himself and it was a new blow in her face that he didn´t trust her to do that properly. Now more than ever she was determined to bail as soon as possible. She would probably miss everyone, even Rath, but it was the best solution for this problem. She wasn´t welcomed here anymore and she didn´t want to be a burden for anyone. Not as long as she still had her dignity and her pride.

_Now the day has come_

_We are forsaken this time_

_We lived our lives_

_In our paradies_

_As gods we shaped the world around_

_No borderlines_

_We stayed behind_

_No boundaries is something fragile_

Marianna stopped at Vilandras bedroom door and opened it quietly. Then she stretched her head through the gap between the door and the frame. There she saw Vilandra lying on her bed and crying on her pillow. Marianna knew how it felt to think you could have prevented something from happening. But Vilandra had to learn that things occur for a reason and nobody could do something against it. Life was like a path. Some parts of the way were straight with no diversion. Then another part was full of curves and you had to struggle to keep on the path. And sometimes there was a point of seperation and you had to choose which way to go. Now Vilandra was standing in front of that and she alone had to decide which way she should go. Either she took the path which woul lead her to the place where she would be eaten up from regret and hate or she took the path which lead her to the place where she could learn to live with her loss and move on.

_Well we thought we were gaining_

_We turned back the time_

_It still slips away_

_Our time has run out_

_Our future had died_

_There´s no more escape_

_Now the day has come_

_We are forsaken_

_There´s no time any more_

_Life will pass us by_

_We are forsaken_

_We´re the last of our kind_

Marianna threw one last glance at Vilandra and then closed the door as quietly as she opened it. Now she move the next room. Maybe Zan was finally feeling a little better. But she doubted it. He was in worse shape than the rest of them. He took the death of Ava harder than the death of his parents. And he suffered like a child that lost its parents and nobody was there to help. It was heartwrenching to see him like that. He was always so joyful and happy. She didn´t know a day he was in a bad mood or was unfriendly to others. But now that was everything taken from him. Marianna was scared to look inside Avas room. She was worried what she would see. With a bad feeling she opened the door and peeked her head inside. The sight was worse than she expected. Zan was just sitting there and didn´t do anything. He stared at one point without it seemed really seeing it. He was probably thinking or the shock was finally hitting him. But then she saw how he lifted his arms and stretched them towards the ceiling. The screaming words that followed were painful and full of hate. Marianna was relieved about it, because it meant that he was in the process to heal. It would take a long time for him, but he made the first step in the right direction. Like Vilandra he was at the crossroad and had to decide which way to go.

_The sacrifice _

_Was much to hide_

_Our grief just made us all go on_

_We try to hide what we fear inside_

_Today is the end of tomorrow_

_As the sea started rise_

_And the land we conquered_

_It just washed away_

_We all have tried_

_To turn back the time_

_It was all in vain_

Silently Marianna let Zan grief alone. Now she had to go to the last room on her way. A room she wanted to avoid actually. But her heart told her that she should see after Rath. After all she still loved him, even if he treated her like the enemy. And part of her could understand him. She didn´t react that different after the death of her mother. Just that she was in the castle full of strangers and she didn´t know them then. He on the other hand knew her, more than anybody before and he should be aware that she wasn´t like he saw her at the moment. Cautiously she took the doorknob and pushed it down slowly. When she opened the door finally and looked inside she noticed that his room was still clean and his bed was still made. There wasn´t a single evidence that he was already here before. Marianna was asking herself where he could be. It was late in the evening and he needed all his strength for the funeral tomorrow. But then she thought about the meeting earlier and guessed that he made the last preperation for the upcoming training. Either way she shouldn´t worry about him. He was the least of them who needed her help.

_Now the day has come_

_We are forsaken_

_There´s no time any more_

_Life will pass us by_

_We are forsaken_

_Only rules stay below_

_Now the day has come_

_We are forsaken_

_Now the day has come_

_We are forsaken_

_There´s no time any more_

Marianna shut the door and walked the few steps to her own room. She would enjoy the last night there before she said goodbye forever. After tomorrow everything would be different and like she hoped the best for everyone. With that thought in mind she stepped into her room and closed the door tightly behind her.

TBC


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28 Time to say goodbye**

The next day the sky was filled with dark clouds and since morning it hadn´t stopped raining. It seemed like the gods were also mourning and were sending the bad weather as a sign for that. All citizen of the kingdom were gathered in front of the portal and waited until the soldiers would be carrying out the corpses of the royal family. Most of the people were wearing their most prettiest dresses or suits. And despite the freezing temperature and the wetness they all were paying their last respect to the king and his family. Nobody was complaining or gossiping like usual. The place was draped in absolutely silence. At least until the gate opened and the first four soldiers were walking slowly down the stairs with a hand barrow on which King Salem laid. He looked like he would be sleeping. His face was peaceful and his hands were laying side by side on his belly. Women were breaking out in tears and men were bowing out of respect for a great man and a good leader. After that the next four soldiers followed with Queen Lutezia. She was a true beauty even in death. Her expression let her look like she was young again. Shortly after another four soldiers were carrying Mael out. It seemed that the men holding the hand barrow had problems to do so. That was no wonder, after all they were trained from him and everybody of them looked up at Mael. Behind them the other soldier were trailing after. Abidale was lying on the hand barrow like a piece of art. Nobody could see that she was dead. She looked still alive and absolutely beautiful. Then the last member of the family was on her way to her last rest. Ava didn´t lose her innocent and her face looked like a face of an angel. It was so sad to die that young. Suddenly all attention turned back from the dead royals when the remaining survivors of the kingdom appeared in the gate. They were all dressed in their mourning clothes, which entailed for the women a dark blue dress and for the men a dark blue suit. Marianna was holding hands with Vilandra and tried to support her, while Rath was standing a little apart from them. Zan didn´t look really good and it seemed that he was suffering more than the others. Slowly they strode down the stairs, after the hand barrows, which were carrying their family. Every citizen was offering their commiserations when they walked by them. The only person which seemed to react to it was Marianna, because neither Zan or Vilandra were in the condition to notice anything around them. Rath was just walking like a roboter through the crowd with an emotionless expression. The way to the burial ground was long and painful. Every step they came closer to the mausoleum where the family would be buried was again and again a realisation that they really were gone and wouldn´t come back anymore. Zan almost broke down when the arrived at their destination. But thankfully Larek was there to hold his friend. Marianna gave him a grateful smile at that. She had enough to do with Vilandra, which was clinging to her hand like a drowning person. Rath didn´t acknowledge his surroundings or so it seemed. It was like he wasn´t there mentally. Marianna was a little worried about that. The others were at least openly exposing their grief and that was a good sign, because it showed that they were on the way to heal someday. But Rath was repressing his feelings and wanted to be the strong man. He wouldn´t keep that up for long before everything broke out of him. And that was worse than grieving from the start. Suddenly Marianna was thrown out of her thoughts when the priest was starting his speech. Everybody was intently listening to what he had to say. Once in a while some women were beginning to cry out really loud. Even a few men had tears in their eyes throughout the monolog. Zan was trying to keep his sobs to a minimum, which didn´t work of course. Vilandra was crying that much, that Marianna had trouble keeping her up. Marianna herself shed a few tears, but she was scared to open the gates fully. Because if she would, she wasn´t so sure if she could stop anytime soon. Larek was too busy with looking after Zan, that he didn´t really listen to what the priest had to say. And Rath was starring at one point without really seeing anything. He was sad, no doubt, but he didn´t show just one emotion either on his face or in his stance. At the end of the speech, just before the bodies would be bedded in their coffins, Vilandra wasn´t able to hold her weight on her feet anymore and she crashed to the ground. The sounds she was making were painful to listen to. Immediately Larek, Zan and a few other of the men were trying to help her back on her feet. But Marianna put them off.

" It´s alright. I´ve got her". Then she noticed that the priest stopped talking. Slightly embaressed she looked at him. " Sorry. Continue with what you were doing. I´ll just bring Vilandra inside".

Larek saw that Marianna had a bit difficulties with lifting Vilandras weight, because her left shoulder wasn´t fully healed yet and helped them. " Should I go with you?".

Marianna shook her head. " No. I got it covered from here. But thanks for the offer".

Larek stepped back and saw after them, how they made their way to the castle. Then he took his role as Zans shadow again. He was probly the next person who had to be dragged back, judging after the way he stood there. It was just a matter of time.

Meanhwile Marianna had finally succeeded to get Vilandra inside the palace without too much difficulties. Althrough it wasn´t easy to support someone when you just had one arm available. But thankfully she had enough strength in it to make it back and bring Vilandra to the hospital ward immediately. Unfortunately no one was there when they arrived and Marianna didn´t have another choice than seating her on a free bed. After that she fetched a chair and placed him in front of Vilandra, which seemed to be trapped in a uncontrolled crying fit. Carefully she took her hands and stroked them. Marianna wanted to say something comforting, but everything that came to her mind sounded so stereotyped and would probably coming from someone who didn´t know what it felt like to lose everything in just one moment.

" I can´t...it´s too much...bear this", Vilandra decided to break the silence. But it was hard to understand what she just said through her sobs.

Marianna bent towards Vilandra, because she just heared the half of the sentence and it didn´t make sense. " What did you say?".

" I can´t stand this. This feeling. It´s too much for me. My heart can´t bear this much pain anymore".

Marianna get up from her chair and sat besides Vilandra. Sympathetically she embraced her with her unharmed arm and pressed her tightly at her side. She knew that feeling too well herself. " You think that now. But give it time and it will get better. I promise".

Vilandra calmed down slightly. At least enough to speak whole sentence. " I just want to wake up and realize everything was only a nightmare".

" I want that as well sometimes. I want to open my eyes and see my room, smell the scent of breakfast from the dinning room and hear the voice of my mother", Marianna laid almost every morning awake in her bed and imagined that she was lying in her bedroom and her mother would be coming every minute to wake her. Or Lykus was sneaking in to get his good morning kiss. Sometimes she missed the times she spent in her home.

Vilandra faced Marianna a little stunned. She never talked about her life before she came here or her feelings. It was the first time that Vilandra noticed that Marianna was a persons with demons like everybody else. And that made her like the girl all the more. " How long did it take you to make it through this?".

Marianna let a small smile appear. " Honestly. I´m still working on it. But it get´s better everyday".

" I don´t think I can hang on that long", Vilandra couldn´t imagine to endure such a long time with this pain that felt like she couldn´t breath and her heart would be shredded to pieces. She suffered just two days now and it already was too much for her. But to bear that a few months, maybe even years? No, her soul wouldn´t survive that.

Marianna made Vilandra look at her. " Of course you can. You´re a strong person and you will make it through this. Even if you can´t do it alone, you have so much people around you who are willing to help you".

" Thank you. You are a great friend", Vilandra was thankful that Marianna came into their lives. Without her she would have probably already lost her mind this few days. Hopefully she was never leaving this place and they would always be friends.

Marianna noticed how a lump was slowly forming in her throat. Great just what she needed. A reason for her to make the leaving part harder. But like she told, Vilandra wasn´t alone and it wouldn´t be a difference if she was there or not. " Are you feeling better?".

" A bit. Actually I´m tired", all the crying was making Vilandra sleepy. Or the fact that she couldn´t sleep the night before.

Marianna jumped from the bed and pulled her friend along. " Come on. I´ll bring you to your room and then you can sleep".

Without a word they both walked through the door out into the corridor. The palace was strangly quiet and scary when nobody was to hear or to see. The only sound they heared was the clacking of their shoes on the floor. After a while they finally made it to the bedroom and Vilandra didn´t even take the time to undress before she crawled under her blanket. Within a few minutes she fell asleep. Marianna stayed until she was sure that it was ok to go. Silently she tiptoed out of the chamber and tried to close the door as quiet as possible behind her. Then she pressed her forehead against it for a few minutes and let the tears finally flow from her eyes. Why did it hurt so much to leave this people? She knew that she wouldn´t stay here forever and accepted it. But why felt it so wrong to do the right thing? She survived it the first time to lose her home, she would surely survive it this time, too. Yet her heart told her to stay and take the time to heal her emotional wounds. Contrary to her mind, which was urging her to leave as fast as possible to protect the people she loved. Marianna didn´t know to what to do. Should she listen to her heart for the first time or do the same she usual did, namely listening to her mind? Of course it would be easier to leave the feelings out and act purely on instinct. In that case she would have been gone weeks ago actually. But her love for this people let her stay longer and develope a bond to them. A bond stronger than death. It would probably survive the long distance as well. Finally making up her mind to go Marianna wiped her tears from her face. Just as she succeeded to get rid of the evidence of her crying, she heard voiced in the corridor. It sounded like the funeral was over and the others were coming back. Quickly she walked into her room and closed the door. She didn´t want to cross anybody´s path right now and maybe see more reason to stay. Not when she just battled so long with her conscience over this topic. Marianna looked around the room she called home for the last few weeks and thought about what she could take with her. She didn´t want too much, because she didn´t know if she would find a place to stay right away. And she had no desire to carry a heavy backpack on her shoulder the whole time. Slowly she went to the bed and sat on it. She wouldn´t probably sleep so comfortable the next time and she wanted to savor the feeling of the warm blanket and the fluffy pillow. With a heavy heart she pressed her face on the pillow and immediately she smelled the scent of Rath on it. Through he hadn´t slept in this bed the last two days. She missed waking up besides him and see his face first thing in the morning. She missed him period. This tension between them was more than she could bear and maybe it was time to go seperate ways. Possibly someday in the future they would meet and then they could start again from anew. Maybe this was meant to be and it was a sign that they weren´t destined for each other. Marianna shook her head and arose from the bed. She couldn´t dwell on the past too long. It wasn´t good for her and besides she didn´t want to waste too much time. After all she still wanted to pack a few things and give her farewell letters, she wrote last night, to their owners. So she got back on her feet and fetched the backpack out of her closet and started putting things inside, which she thought she would need or she wanted as a reminder about the time here. During her search for everything she found a black shirt wadded in the corner of the room. Surprised she bent down and lifted it up. Jugding after the size of it, this shirt wasn´t one of hers, but one of Rath. Without thinking she put it in her backpack. After that she let her gaze run over the chamber again, to see if she missed something. But when she noticed that she had all the things, she closed her backpack and took the letters from her bedside table. For the last time she memorized everything and went out the door then. Loaded with her backpack, she walked at first to Vilandras room. There she shoved the letter with Vilandras name on it through the little gap between the door and the floor. For a few seconds she laid her hand on the wood and said quietly goodbye. With tears in her eyes she made her way to Zans door and repeated the same there. But when she came to Raths room she heard fast steps nearing her. Startled she turned around and detected that the owner of the said chamber was angrily walking in her direction. Great. Just what she needed. More fighting.

" What do you think you´re doing here?", Rath was pissed, which showed his vein that was pumping strong at his forehead. And the darkening of his eyes that let him look more dangerous than he actually was.

Marianna looked around her. What did it look like she was doing? " I´m going away".

Rath stopped with all his heigth, that was pretty high considering Mariannas small size, in front of her. How could she be so calm about everything. " That´s very easy, isn´t it? Just bailing when it gets tough".

" I´m not bailing. I´m just trying to make it easier for everyone. You made it absolutely clear that I´m not welcomed here anymore", Marianna wouldn´t back down from Rath, no matter how threatenly he seemed he was. Besides it was his fault that she felt that way now.

Rath wouldn´t hold his anger back this time. Everytime they fought she got her way and he was okay with that. But not now. This topic was too important. " I´ve never said that nor did I give any indication that I wanted you gone. That was all your idea".

Marianna laughed out loud. Did he actually listen to the things he said? Now he tried to turn the table and make everything her fault. Again. " If you think so. In fact I don´t care what you think anymore. Let me just go and forget this conversation ever happened".

" I don´t want to forget. And you´re not going anywhere", Rath crossed his arms over his chest and tried to block her way. If she wanted to go, she had to walk through him first. And that was a hard task considering his tall body.

Marianna knew what he wanted to do. But it wouldn´t work. If he wanted to prevent her from leaving she would use her powers to move him if she had to. " Do you think you scare me with your tactics? If yes then I have to disappoint you. I´m not scared of you". To prove her point she pushed him aside and walked past him.

Rath on the other hand expected it and shoot his arm out to get a tight grip on her backpack. With a quick move he pulled it from her shoulder and threw it on the ground a few feets away." And what do you wanna do now?".

" What I should have done the first time. Goodbye Rath", Marianna left the backpack were it was and went away. But she didn´t came far, because at the end of the corridor was a solid wall of soldiers. Everybody standing shoulder by shoulder. There wasn´t a way out of the castle. Marianna turned to Rath and send him a deathglare. Why was he making such a fuss about her dissapearing? " Now what? Do you want to lock me up in the dungeon?".

Rath stepped closer to Marianna. He got her where he wanted her actually. She was trapped here if she wanted or not. " If I have to do that to keep you here. Then yes".

" Dammit Rath. You can´t keep me prisoner", Marianna finally lost her patience with him. It was one thing to go against one person, but she knew that she wouldn´t have a chance against the whole army. He was absolutely serious. Damn.

Rath wanted to smile at the picture of a furious Marianna. She was so damn sexy when she got angry. But he wasn´t finished with his plan yet. " I can do whatever I want. I have the privileg to imprison a person if I think she is a threat to others or to herself".

" Finally you admit it. You think I´m a danger to others. This is just about keeping an eye on me, because I could pass valid information to the enemy, isn´t it?", Marianna was extremely hurt and sad about the accusation. How could he be so cold toward her, after all they went through.

Rath exploded at that. " I didn´t say that", he didn´t came further than that, because in that moment Vilandra stretched her head out of her door and looked at him.

" What is going on here?".

Rath put her off with a wink of his arm. " That´s none of your business".

Vilandra saw the rage in Raths eyes. Something was obviously going on. She turned to the other side and saw Marianna standing there with many soldiers behind her. Oh shit. Rath was laying the blame on Mariannas shoulders and wanted to arrest her. Or why else would he need back up when not for that. No Vilandra couldn´t let that happen. " Rath don´t do it. Please. It´s not her fault. If you want someone to blame then blame me".

Rath glanced at Vilandra like she lost her mind. What was she talking about? " Huh?".

" I invited the enemy into the castle. I didn´t know it at the time, but I was involved with Mariannas brother. And I think he used me for information", Vilandra wanted to draw Raths anger in her direction, because he would be more gentle with her than with Marianna. After all she was family.

Rath shook his head. He had to misheard himself. Because it sounded like Vilandra was the one who brought all this death and destruction. " Excuse me? Did I hear correctly? You had a thing with the enemy?".

Marianna had the feeling to defend her friend in that case. It wasn´t Vilandras fault what happened. " But she had no idea that he was the enemy then".

" You knew about that!".

Vilandra and Marianna both winced at the high pitched question. Maybe they should go in a safe distance before he blasted everything around them. Marianna was the first who dared to move a little back, just in case it could get dangerous. " Yeah".

" That´s fantastic. And when did you plan to inform the rest of us about this important message?", Rath had slight problems to control his powers. He could feel them building inside him and it seemed like they wanted out fast.

Vilandra saw the change in him and placed herself behind Marianna, who was watching with fear how Rath´s hands began to glow in a white light and his body began to emit a unbelievable heat. " Calm down".

Rath stared intently at Vilandra. She was telling him to calm down after he learned that someone he thought as a sister was responsible for the death of his parents and someone who he loved more than anything was keeping secrets from him? " You should be hanged for that. Or at least thrown in the dungeon for treason".

Marianna was shocked about what left Raths mouth. Did he just wish the death to the closest thing to a sister he still had? Didn´t he have a heart anymore? What happened to the person she fell in love? He acted as cold as Khiver had towards her and she knew how hurtful that could be. " How can you say that to her? Are you mental?".

" She was involved with the enemy. That´s a crime against the kingdom", Rath didn´t pay attention to Vilandra nor did he care about her condition.

Marianna had enough from Rath´s behaviour. Someone had to stand up to him. " Great. If that´s the case then you have to arrest me, too. In case you´ve forgot I´m related to the enemy"

Rath didn´t know what to retort to that. He looked at Vilandra, who was crying softly behind her hands and then to Marianna. She was glaring at him like he was the most coldhearted person on this planet. And he couldn´t blame her. He acted like a jerk the last few days. But he couldn´t handle the loss of his family and the obligation he took over from his father. Everything was just too much for him at the moment. So without saying a word he turned around and went to his room. There he almost destroyed the door when he slammed it shut.

Marianna faced Vilandra and saw the sadness in her stance. After all she went through it was no wonder. Slowly she embraced her and tried to calm her down. She was ressuring her that she shouldn´t take what Rath said personally. He was a jackass and would probably feel horrible when he realized what he had done in his blind rage. Over Vilandras shoulder she saw Larek making his way to them. Suddenly a breaking noise from Raths chamber was startling everyone. Immediately she released Vilandra and went to the door. Before she opened it she looked back to the others. Thankfully Larek took care of Vilandra and brought her back into her room. The soldiers had made a hasty retreat also. Now there was just her and Rath. Cautiously she pushed the door open and peek inside. What she saw then made her blood run cold. On the left sidewall was a hole just over the bed. Marianna stepped further into the chamber and saw Rath sitting on the ground with a bloody hand. He had obviously put it through the hard wall.

_I can´t remember anything_

_Can´t tell if this is true or dream_

_Deep down inside I fell to scream_

_This terrible silence stops me_

" Do you feel better now?".

Rath looked up from his position and Marianna felt really bad for her comment. The sadness in his eyes was unbearable for her. She never saw him this broken before. " What do you want. I thought you wanted to go".

Marianna detected the resigned tone in his voice. Carefully she walked to him and sat beside him. " Do you want to talk about it?".

" About what?", Rath looked at his injured hand again.

Marianna felt that it wouldn´t be too long before everything broke out of him. And she wanted to be there for him when that happened. " Oh I don´t know. Maybe the fact that your family is dead or why your acting so heartless the last few days".

Rath jumped to his feet the moment she mentioned his family. He didn´t want to talk about it. Not now. He wouldn´t stand it. " There´s nothing to talk".

_Now that the war is through with me_

_I´m waking up I can not see_

_That there is not much left of me_

_Nothing is real but pain now_

" I beg to differ. I know that you´re hurting like the rest of us. But it´s not healthy to keep it inside", Marianna slowly arose from the ground and went to Rath. He wasn´t in control of his powers at the moment, which meant he hadn´t a wall protecting his emotions. Everything he felt now, Marianna could sense. And it wasn´t pleasant.

Rath tried to fight against the tears. He wasn´t allowed to cry. After all he was a man and it wasn´t really manly to show any kind of weakness. " Stop it. Just leave me alone".

Marianna saw that she had him almost so far that it wouldn´t last long before he cracked. She didn´t want to be so cruel, but she had no other choice. He had to mourn and let everything out or he would always carry this hate with him until it would eat him up slowly. And she wanted to prevent that from happening. " No. I´m staying right here".

" What do you wanna hear from me?", Rath turned to Marianna and glared at her. Why couldn´t she let him be and finally go away? He was about to explode and he didn´t want her to be here to see that. " That I´m not up to the pressure? Or that I failed protecting my family? Or that I don´t know why I stand up in the morning?".

_Hold my breath as I wish for death_

_Oh please god wake me_

_Back in the womb it´s much too real_

_In pumps life that I must feel_

_But can´t look forward to reveal_

_Look to the time when I´ll live_

Marianna laid a hand on his shoulder. Partly for letting him now that he wasn´t alone and partly for supporting him to let everything out. " It´s normal to feel that way and nothing to be ashamed of".

Rath couldn´t bear her touch and wrest himself away from her. Then he walked to his window and looked out of it. Maybe she would understand his meaning and leave his room. But when he felt her presence behind him, he knew that she didn´t get it. " Please. Can´t you just do what I say and let it go".

" Why do you fight so hard against your feelings?", Marianna wouldn´t give up now. Not when she finally succeed in knocking a few stones out of his wall around him. He would have done the same with her and he couldn´t expect less from her.

Rath braced his hands on the window ledge and hung his head. " Because I´m afraid".

Marianna bent closer to him. He was whispering so quiet that she almost didn´t hear him. " Afraid of what?"

" Afraid to perish of pain. If I start mourning then my family is really gone and I don´t think I can cope with that".

_Fed through the tube that sticks in me_

_Just like a wartime novelty_

_Tied to machines that make me be_

_Cut this life off from me_

Marianna could sympathize with him in that matter. She herself thought she was protected from pain if she didn´t think about it too much. But she had been wrong and knew that now. Rath shouldn´t make the same mistake she did, because it wouldn´t help anyone if he tried to throw one´s way around and then he broke down at the worst time. " But mourning means you´re on the way to heal. If you repress everything you will never heal".

" And what would be so bad about that? Maybe that´s my punishment for failing".

Marianna grasped Rath and turned him around. Then she lifted his head with her hand until she had eye contact with him. " Don´t even think that, alright? It´s not your fault. Things happen and we can´t do anything against it. You can´t always save everyone".

Raths eyes filled with tears at that. That would have been something his father would have told him. " I can´t take this pain. It´s simply too much for me".

Marianna slowly pulled Rath at her body and wrapped her arm around him. Immediately she felt him clinging to her tightly. After that the dam finally broke and Rath let the tears fall. Carefully she stroked his back soothingly. " You don´t have to go through this alone. I´ll be on your side as long as it takes".

_Hold my breath as I wish for death_

_Oh please god wake me_

_Now the world is gone I´m just one_

_Oh god help me hold my breath as I wish for death_

_Oh please God help me_

Raths complete body shook with his sobs and he held onto Marianna like she was a lifeline. He was glad that she didn´t go away. He hoped that she could ever forgive him the things he threw at her. He never wanted to hurt her actually. If it wasn´t for her he would still be stuck in this black hole in which he couldn´t come out anymore. But she reached out for him and was slowly pulling him out of it. With her help he surely would survive this wounds and learn from them.

Marianna couldn´t hold Raths weight on top of hers any longer and navigated them to the bed. It was a bit difficult, because he didn´t release her. But in the end she managed to get him on the mattress and in a lying position. Finally she got him to ease his hold on her, althrough he didn´t let her go completely. But now she could comfort him and not break her back in the process. Tenderly she caressed his head while he griefed. Every once in a while she spoke encouraging words to him and let him feel that she was here and wouldn´t go anywhere. After a long time his tears stopped and he just fell asleep. Marianna continued touching him through. She watched while he slept and made a promise to him that she would always be there for him and they would let Khivar suffer for this. This was not the end, but just the beginning of a bloody war.

TBC


	29. Chapter 29

**Thanks to all who found the time to read this and give me great feedback. This the second last chapter of this story and then it is finished. Thanks for all the support.**

**Chapter 29 Starting to heal**

Rath was the first who woke up the following morning. And that just because a light was shining on his face and wouldn´t let him sleep longer. Slowly he opened his eyes and tried to shake off his fatigue. Then he saw that he still was in his clothes from last night and wondered why. But after his mind cleared he could remember what happened. He eyed his hand, which was looking absolutely normal. How could this be? He put his hand through a stone wall last night and he heard the bones breaking. However there was no trace of blood or any other indication that would show him that his hand was hurt. He glanced at his right side to see if Marianna was there or if he had dreamed everything. To his disappointment the spot was empty beside him. Had he imagined everything? If so, why could he still smell her on his clothes? Still a little fuzzy he arose into a sitting position and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

" Look who´s awake".

Rath startled for a moment when he heared Mariannas voice. Surprised he turned to the source of sound and saw her sitting on a chair in front of the window. She seemed to be awake for along time, because she wore different clothes than yesterday. She traded her mourning dress for her trainings clothes. " How long are you sitting there already?".

Marianna stood up from her place and stretched her legs. It wasn´t good to sit too long in a position in a quite uncomfortable chair. Now she had to pay the prize for that. " Since dawn actually", she walked to the bed and made herself comfortable beneath Rath. He was looking a bit better this morning, what didn´t mean that he was automaticall healed. But he was on the righ way there. " How are you feeling?".

" I had better days. But it´s not so bad anymore", and Rath really meant that. The stifling feeling in his chest was bearable and the pressure wasn´t that heavy any longer. The crying really helped him. And he was glad that the tension between him and Marianna was cleared.

Marianna was relieved to see part of Rath´s old ego was shining through his dark aura. Maybe everything would get better from now on. Carefully she raised her hand and stroked his cheek. Immediately he responded by snuggeling with his face into her palm. " You scared me last night. I thought I would lose you to your blinding rage".

Rath felt slightly ashamed for his behaviour. He wasn´t himself the past few days and he let his anger out on the wrong persons. When he just thought about that, he had to remind himself to apologize to Vilandra later. " I´m sorry. I didn´t want that".

" I´m pleased to hear that", then Marianna slapped Rath pretty hard on his shoulder. She wanted to do that for a long time, althrough she had another part of his body in his mind. " Don´t do that ever again to me".

Rath rubbed the spot where he was hit. Damn Marianna seemed not to know how strong she was. She almost broke a bone. " I promise", considering what she would do to him when didn´t stick to it. He didn´t want to know which body part had to be topped the next time.

Marianna stopped caressing his cheek and jumped to her feet. They didn´t have time to laze. There was still so much they had to do. " So now that the first problem is solved, we have to approach the next".

" Which would be?", Rath wouldn´t have minded if she would have crawled into his bed and they would have properly celebrated the ending of their fight. But deep down he knew that it wasn´t the time for that.

Marianna glanced at Rath like a second head was growing from his throat. " Firstly we have to prepare the training lessons, then we have to check if we have enough weapons, after that we have to look after Vilandra and Zan and lastly we have to think how we are planning to attack. Of course not in this order".

Rath let out a loud groan and threw himself on his pillows again. She wanted to do that all today? They wouldn´t made it in that time. She was crazy. Actually wasn´t she the one who suggested that they needed time to set up everything properly?. " Alright. Give me time to make myself presentable and we can begin".

" Great. While you dress, I will pay Vilandra a visit", Marianna bent over Rath and gave him a chaste kiss on his cheek before disappearing from his sight.

Rath enjoyed the last moments in his comfortable bed and then made his way out of bed and into his bathroom.

**Vilandras room**

Marianna knocked softly on the door and waited till she got the green light to enter. After she received a come in she slowly opened it and carefully stepped into the room. Vilandra seemed to have cried all night long. Her eyes were red and puffy. But despite that she was looking a bit healthier than the last time she saw her.

" Knock knock".

Vilandra looked up from her place on the bed and stared at Marianna like she would be a ghost for a few seconds before she jumped to her feet and made a run in her direction. Then she embraced Marianna really tightly. " I thought you were gone. I got your letter".

Marianna was slightly surprised about the unexpected hug, yet she put her arms around Vilandra. Thankfully her shoulder was almost healed and she could move her arm without pain. " I changed my mind. Or rather someone did it for me".

" Is everything alright between you two again?", Vilandra hoped that it was the case, because she didn´t want Marianna to feel like she wouldn´t belong here. And maybe Rath was finding his old behaviour once more. She didn´t like him at the moment. He scared her actually.

Marianna released Vilandra from herself and smiled at her. " Yeah. In fact we have still to talk, but we´re heading in the right direction".

Vilandra breathed a sigh of relieve. She didn´t want to be fight between them. They only had themself now and it wasn´t good to play against each other. " I´m so glad to hear that. Did say why he was acting so strange?".

" It was just his way of mourning, I think", and Marianna wouldn´t say more about the topic. She wasn´t comfortable discussing Rath with Vilandra. After all he didn´t want her to know at first and he wouldn´t want that she would tell it someone other. If Vilandra wished to know more she had to ask Rath herself.

Vilandra nodded her head. She understood the message. The topic was closed. " So what brings you to my room?", she went to her bed and let her slump on it.

" I just wanted to see how you´re doing. I mean Rath was pretty hurtful to you yesterday", Marianna followed her slowly. Actually she did have a specific reason for coming her. But she didn´t want to go like a bull at a gate.

Vilandra observed her rather closely. Why didn´t she believe that? Maybe it was part of her visit, but not everything. There was more. " Why don´t you just ask me?".

Marianna cursed herself for being so obvious nowadays. She should take lessons from Rath. He could hold his expression still and nobody would know what was going on inside him. She seemed to have lost her edge and she didn´t like it. Especially now. Thankfully it was just Vilandra and not somebody else or she could have been in deep trouble. " Alright. I need your help".

" What for?", Vilandra didn´t have a good feeling about this. Why was Marianna asking her? She had no strength and nothing else to offer. She was just a pretty princess, whose greatest goal in life was to find the perfect man and marry him someday.

Marianna grew slightly nervous. She didn´t know how to approach the subject without inflicting more pain to her friend. She was still hurting. " I need you to go inside Nikolais head and get information from him about their plans".

Vilandra shook her head immediately. How could she expect something from her? She wasn´t that good with her powers. She even had problems to get access to some dreams, but to do it when someone wasn´t sleeping. That was impossible. Besides she didn´t want to see what was going on inside Nikolais head. Maybe she would discover something that would destroy her. " I can´t do that".

" I know it´s much to ask from me. But I don´t have your powers or else I wouldn´t have asked. Believe me", Marianna was desperate and hadn´t much options left. She thought about everything this morning, when she watched Rath sleeping. She imagined every tactic and some. But she couldn´t prepare for something she didn´t know when it would happen. Hence she needed the sleepwalking powers from Vilandra.

Vilandra was aware that Marianna was counting on her support and she wouldn´t have pleaded with her if she would have seen another way. But she was scared. Scared of things she could reveal that would hurt or things that could destroy the remaining trust she had in people. " I´ve never went into a mind that was awake. It´s pretty impossible to do that. Even if I wanted to help. I don´t have the abilities".

" I believe in you. I know you can do it. I even offer my guidance if you need it. I won´t let you go through that alone", althrough Marianna wasn´t to keen herself to wander around in the head of her brother. She was already disgusted to be near him. But to be inside him? Ewww. If you think about it really cleary it´s as nasty as it sounds. " But if you don´t feel up to the pressure than you don´t have to do it. I would understand it. I´ll give you time until tonight to think about it". Marianna stood up from the bed and went out of the room.

Vilandra was surprised about the confidence Marianna seemed to have in her. Nobody ever said that to her. And she liked that feeling. Like she would be a important part of something big. And now she had the choice for either sitting around and doing nothing while the others waged a war or she could take part in all and maybe even be helpful? Actually if one thought about it that way, the choice wouldn´t be so hard to make. But on the other hand, what happened if she failed her assignment? What if she wasn´t strong enough and someone got hurt because of her? She wouldn´t stand it again. Vilandra massaged her temple. All this thinking was giving her a headache. Thank god that she had enough time to decide.

**Corridor**

Rath was waiting for a few minutes now in front of Vilandras door for Marianna to appear. She just wanted to look after her not tell her a story. She was the one who insisted to deal with everything today and now she was wasting value time with talking. He eyed his timer and thought about going to bed again and maybe sleep for a few hours. Marianna was capable of handling everything alone, she wouldn´t need him anyway. Just as he wanted to make his way to his room, the door opened. Rath watched how Marianna exited the chamber and sighed loudly. The talking seemed to didn´t went well like she expected. Instantly he wrapped his arms around her middle and pulled her tightly at his body.

" What happened?".

Marianna snuggled her head against Raths chest and tried to enjoy the warmth of his body. But she had to much on her mind right now to do that. " I asked Vilandra if she could help me. But she refused".

Rath stroked her back soothingly. She was too tense. Maybe she needed to rest for a few hours. Since the attack she was the only one without a break. " Did she say why?".

" She´s scared and she doesn´t think she is capable of using her powers beyond her abilities", Marianna was again deep in thoughts. She had to create another plan. A plan involving sending some soldier into the castle of Khivar and spy for them. But she didn´t want to sacrifice a life if she didn´t have to. It would be easier if nobody had to brought in unnecessary danger.

" Maybe she will change her mind and surprise you", Rath knew Vilandra pretty good and she was a loyal friend. She would do anything in her powers to help. She just needed a push in the right direction sometimes. They had just to wait and see.

Marianna pushed herself away from Rath and looked in his eyes." Don´t count on it", she faced the door of Zans room and thought about going in there. But she couldn´t stand the depressing atmosphere right now and especially in her condition. She would go to him later, when they finished everything. Maybe then she was in another mood. Slowly she turned her head in Rath direction once more. " So where should we begin?".

" Why you´re asking me? It was your idea to do the things, hence you should decide", if it would be going after his head, they would be still in bed and resting. But Marianna didn´t want that, so it was her decision what would be first.

Marianna was under the impression that he wanted them both as equals. But if he didn´t want that anymore, who was she to say something against it. " Alright. You prepare the training lessons and I will go into the amoury and count the weapons".

" I thought we would do everything together?", great. If he knew that beforehand he could have stayed in bed a bit longer. It wasn´t much to do and he would be probably finished long before the first soldiers would step foot in the room.

Marianna heard the disappointment in his voice. Did he think they would made everything in one day if they worked together? That was impossible to do. " No. That would take up too much time".

" Then we should just do what we can today and the remain tomorrow", it was actually a great idea. Besides she said they would need time to prepare everything. Now she wanted everything done yesterday.

" I want to be ready if they try to attack again. I don´t want any suprises anymore. Can you understand that?", it was extremly important to her, that everyone knew what they had to do and when. She had the feeling that they wouldn´t have to wait long before Khivar would march in with his soldiers and try to kill the only living persons who could be dangerous to him. He didn´t attack them for fun. He had a purpose. A purpose they had to find out what it was about.

Rath saw the fear in her eyes and he got a bad feeling in his guts. It was the look she had the day before hell broke loose. Their time seemed to have run out. " Yeah. Alright then let´s get started".

Marianna was relieved that he wasn´t his usual self in this and didn´t start fighting with her. Maybe they finally found a way to work together. Or he could also feel something and didn´t want to waste too much time with an argument. Either way it was very helpful. So without another word they both went seperate ways. Rath was on his way to the training room and Marianna to the armoury.

**The Armoury**

Marianna stood in front of the wall and waved her hand over it for a few minutes now. At first she thought she was at the wrong spot. But when she looked closer she could detect the little scratch she still could remember from the last time she was here. No she was at the right place. Now she only had to find out how she could open the damn entrance and that preferably today. Maybe there was some kind of scanner or something. She eyed the stones carefully. No there was no scanner or anything else. Dammit. She should have made Rath doing the counting and she prepared the exercise. Marianna breathed slowly to calm herself. Then she stretched her hand in the direction of the wall once more. This time she clenched her eyes shut and tried to concentrate on the picture of the wall splitting in the middle and opening up. At first nothing happened. But suddenly there was a noise that sounded like a rock would be shifting on a solid floor. Marianna opened her eyes instantly and noticed to her joy that she finally succeeded. The door to the armoury was gone and without waiting if she dreamed or not she went inside quickly. Now she could go to work.

**Training room**

Rath was in a bad mood. First of all he had to go out of bed, although he didn´t want that. At least not so early. Secondly he had to spent his midmorning preparing something that didn´t need so much preparing actually. The soldiers knew what they had to do. They got trained for this situation over and over again. He couldn´t show them anything new. Rath was sure that nobody of the citizens would be present in the training, hence he didn´t need to plan something for newbies. So he just controlled the equipment and checked the practise weapons. After that he stepped to the window and watched the place in front of the palace. He tried to oversee the damage to the front garden, which the other soldiers left behind. There was no indication what really happened here, but he still had the pictures in his mind and he would keep them forever branded there. In the past this was a wonderful kingdom, where everybody was happy and friendly towards the others. The place where you could let your children grow up without being scared something could happen to them. It was the same spot where he played his pranks with Zan or chased his sister around the local market. Sometimes he talked with his father by the tree near the outerwall. Back then he got his first advice how to treat a girl from his father there. It was embarassing, but one of his most beautiful memories. However when he looked at it now,all he could see was the many dead bodies and so much ravage everywhere. He wondered if he would always carry this pain he felt at the moment with him. Or if it went away the more time passed. But actually he didn´t want to know that. Not when he needed his mind occupied with more important things. Like to scheme a really good plan, explain it to all the men and motivate them in the process. Because he knew that it would be a hard battle and everybody was scared.

" Hey Rath, do you know where Marianna is?", a voice asked him and ripped him from his thoughts.

He slowly turned around and was stunned to see Zan standing in the doorway. He didn´t look good, but he at least made it out of the room, that was a improvement. " She´s down in the armoury. Why?".

" No reason actually. But thanks", without any further explanation he took off again.

Rath looked after him rather confused. Since when did Zan seek the company of Marianna without any reason? There was something going on. But he hadn´t the time nor the desire to snoop after them at the moment. When it would be something dangerous or important he would get to know it sooner or later anyway.

**The Armoury**

Marianna was finally done with counting and checking the weapons. She couldn´t believe how much of them were in this room. There could be at least three weapons for each of the soldiers. Slowly she walked to her armor and regarded it with the same awe like the first time she laid her eyes on it. Immediately the picture from her last visit sprung into her mind. Carefully she trailed her finger over the crest on her chest protector and tears began to sting her eyes. Mael was so proud of them that day und she was touched about this gift that she thought her heart had to burst into million pieces. Suddenly the scene changed and she looked again in the shocked face of him when the sword plunged through his flesh. By now the tears were freely falling down her cheeks and dripped on her shirt.

" Marianna?".

Startled Marianna wiped hastily the tears from her face and tried to hide the fact that she cried. She didn´t want anybody to see how devasted she really was. After all everybody counted on her to be there for them and be the rock where they could hold on to. After she was sure that nothing was to see anymore she turned around to the voice. She was surprised to see Zan standing an the entrance. He looked like a ghost and seemed to have lost weight. But better than the last time she had seen him. " I´m glad to see you made it out of the room finally".

" You told me that you would be there when I was ready to talk. I think I´m ready now", Zan wanted to get out from his black void and return to the living again. He understood now that he couldn´t make it alone and he needed help.

Marianna smiled and started walking towards him. She was relieved that he realized that it wasn´t good to try to go through the pain without help. And she was moved that he sought her out. Not his sister or Rath or even Larek. " Then lets find us a nice place to talk".

" Here is good", Zan pointed at the wall in the back of the room. He didn´t want to pour his heart out somewhere where anybody could disturb them. It was hard enough for him to do it with one person, but if someone would burst in he would lose his bravery.

Marianna was a little confused about the location, but if he wanted that she would not question it. If it would make him feel a little better. Fine. So she went to the wall and let herself slump down there. After a few seconds Zan followed her. Pretty uneasy they sat side by side and starred straight forward. Both didn´t now what to say or where they should begin. Until Marianna couldn´t bear the silence any longer.

" How are you feeling?", alright not the brightest question, but she made a start after all.

Zan sighed deeply and shrugged his shoulders. " Like part of me is missing and this part was responsible for my survival".

" The feeling will go by in time. The only thing you can do right now is accepting the pain and not fight against it. Pain means we´re alive and everything that doesn´t kill us makes us just stronger", that was something Hewik or rather her father said everytime she hurt herself. It was a wise quote and finally she understood the meaning of it.

" I don´t know if I can do that. Sometimes it feels like I will be crushed under all this pain and other times I´m scared that I will lose the ability to feel anything, that I will be just a walking shell without soul", Zan buried his head in hands and shook it. He wanted this hurt to be gone. He couldn´t take it anymore. Everything was so dark and cold at the moment.

Marianna laid her arm around him carefully and stroked his back. She was still a little hesistant, but after she noticed that he didn´t pull back, she took his head and placed it on her shoulder. " I´ll tell you something my mother told me a long time ago. Mourning is like a open wound. At first it hurts like hell and it will bleed. In time the pain lessens and the bleeding stops. And one day all there is left is just a scar that doesn´t hurt anymore. But this scar makes us who we are and sometimes it is a reminder to be more careful or more attentive to other things".

Zan enjoyed the caresses and he felt a little better now. Not that he was over the death of his family all of the sudden. But her words were comforting. Even if they couldn´t heal his wounds. " That was beautiful. Your mother was a wise woman".

" Yeah she was", Mariannas mind flashed to the last time they talked to each other. It was the night before she was murdered. Her mother was visiting her in her bedroom and they spoke about love and how it sometimes wasn´t what it appeared to be. Marianna knew that she was talking about herself and that she wasn´t happy in her marriage with Khivar. She should have done something then and maybe her mother would be still alive.

" Do you think they´re in nice place wherever they are?", Zan thought about that a lot this past days. He couldn´t stand to think that they were somewhere horrible or scary.

Marianna sighed loud. That was a question she asked herself often when she couldn´t sleep. But truthfully she had no answer to that. She hoped that it was better, but she wasn´t sure. Nobody seemed to know it. " I really don´t know".

Zan was grateful that she was honest with him. Anyone else would have told him a tale about a perfect place for the dead souls and how peaceful it was there. But not Marianna, she didn´t tell him what he wanted to hear. He liked it. " I envy you. You went through so much in your life and you didn´t give up. You put everything bad behind you and move on. How do you do that?".

" I just do", Marianna didn´t know herself how she made it so far without breaking down. Maybe it was the way she grew up or she just learned more from Khivar than she thought. It was scary that she had her feelings so under control that she couldn´t let her sorrow out like everybody else.

Zan raised his head and took a closer look at her. She sounded so sad. Just as he wanted to ask her if he could help her in anyway, two persons stormed through the door. Startled Marianna and Zan jumped to their feet and stretched their arms out simultanously. Relieved they dropped them the moment they detected it was just Vilandra and Rath. Both were looking like something bad happened.

" What´s up?", Marianna didn´t have a good feeling.

Vilandra struggled for breath and gave her a sign to wait. However Rath had no patience and so he spoke for her. " We know the date for the next attack and you won´t like it".

Mariannas heart started beating faster and her hands began to sweat. " When?".

Vilandra had finally her breating under control again. " Tomorrow, early in the morning".

" No. They can´t do that. We´re not ready for an attack. It´s too early. Oh godness we have to round up everybody and prepare them", Marianna paced the floor like a lunatic. They weren´t ready yet, they still needed time. They would probably all die.

Zan and Vilandra glanced at each other confused. They had never seen her so out of control. She was usually the one everybody could count on to listen, when everything fell apart. Now it seemed to be the other way around.

Rath knew what was happening to Marianna. Her shaking hands and her fast breathing was a sign for a panic attack. If he couldn´t stop her she would pass out. Quickly he stepped closer to her and grasped her shoulders firmly. Then he made her look him in the eyes. " Calm down. We have still enough time".

" I should have listened to you. You said we should attack as soon as possible. Because of me we all will die", Marianna blustered so into the thing that her powers let a few things explode near them.

Rath shook her a little to get her out of the panic mood. It wasn´t good to lose it now. " Listen to me. You have to calm down",

Suddenly Marianna bent down with her torso and tried to breath normal. She had the feeling to suffocate. Rath kneeled besides her. He didn´t know what do to or how he could help her. He looked back to Zan and Vilandra, which seemed to be as clueless as him. Desperate he faced Marianna again. Just in time to see her falling backwards to the ground. Immediately he catched her before she made contact with it. Carefully he laid her on the floor and sat beneath her.

" I´ll go get a healer", Zan was concerned and had the feeling to do something. So without waiting for a reply he ran out of the room.

Vilandra went instantly to Mariannas other side and placed herself there. She took her hand and noticed how cold it was. " What was that?".

Rath put Mariannas head in his lap and stroked her hair from her face. He couldn´t explain exactly what happened, but he had a pretty good guess why it happened. " I think it was all just too much for her and her body shut down because of that".

" I´ve never seen her so out of control. It scares me. She´s always so strong in everything. If she starts falling apart now, we don´t have a chance to succeed in this war", Vilandra thought it would help the situation if she had a few information. But now it seemed it did the complete oppsite.

Rath averted his eyes from Marianna and looked at Vilandra. " Don´t even think that. We´ll making it throught this", he laid a hand on her arm. " Together", he didn´t break the eyecontact with her while he said that. " And I wanted to say that I´m sorry for the way I treated you".

" Thank you. That means a lot. And I forgive you", Vilandra knew that he didn´t meant what he said and the way he behaved was not his intention. They had a fight, so what? They were family and there are always fights between siblings.

Rath turned his gaze back to Marianna again. She still hadn´t regained her consciousness and was just lying there. He wished she would open her eyes. He needed her with him now. He couldn´t take all this responsiblility alone. If he could at least feel something from her, then he wouldn´t worry so much. But he got nothing. So the only thing he could do right now was to wait for Zan and a healer to come.

**Mariannas subconscious**

She was standing in absolute darkness. Nothing was around her, just this dark place. There seemed to be no walls or a ceiling or even a ground. It was like she hovering in the air, just that she didn´t feel like she would float. She was standing on a solid floor. Paniced Marianna turned in all directions to detect something familiar. But it was simply to dark to see anything. Slowly fear was settling in and she was on the brink to freak out. Where was she? Was this another dream? Was she dead? Suddenly a bright light came in her direction and blinded her for a moment. Instinctly she protected her eyes with her arm. When she noticed that the light was not so bright anymore she dropped her arm and looked at the thing that was standing in front of her. For a moment she was shocked. It wasn´t a thing, but rather a person.

" Mother?".

Leiana smiled at her daughter. " Yes dear. It´s me".

Marianna rubbed her eyes. That couldn´t be. Her mother was dead. Or did that imply that she wasn´t alive anymore herself? Was this the place where all the souls were staying? " Am I dead?".

" No. You´re just resting for a moment", her mother looked like an angel. The white dress she wore was shining pretty bright. And her face glowed with happiness. A expression Marianna didn´t see that often on her mothers face.

" What are you doing here then? And where is here?", Marianna had so many questions at the moment, that she didn´t realized that she was so close to her mother, after which she mourned so long.

Leiana laid a hand on her daughters cheek and stroked it. " You´re unconscious right now and we´re in your head", the smile on her face didn´t waver. " I was send here to give you the support you need to get thought this war. You´re facing your worst nightmare and I´ll try to help in any way I can".

Marianna felt the touch of her mother and finally she noticed that everything was real. Tears where streamig down her face when she leaped in her arms and hugged her tightly. " I´m so sorry. I´m sorry for not stopping Khivar sooner. I´m sorry for not regnorizing sooner that he wasn´t the man I wanted him to be".

" It´s not your fault, honey. Things happen and we can´t do anything to prevent it. I´m so proud of you and the woman you became. I couldn´t hope for a better daughter", Leiana pressed her strong at her body. It was good to feel her. Even if it was for a little while.

Marianna lifted her head and looked at mother. " Still. I could have done something".

" No. It was my destiny to die that young, just like it is your destiny to lead this army through this battle. Nothing happens without a reason", Leiana was beyond the point of mourning the loss of her life. Actually she was now living in another place, a better place, where she could be what she wanted and be with whom she wanted. It wasn´t bad there, just different.

" I don´t think I can do that. I´m not ready to lead an attack", Marianna was terrified of all the responsibility. So many lifes were depending on her and if she made a mistake there would be no coming back.

Leiana caressed the head of her daughter. She made herself smaller than she was. She was more than ready to take her role or Mael wouldn´t have choosen her. Even Hewik could see what she was capable of and he wasn´t wrong in his judgement. " You were trained for this. I observed you from above and saw how much work you put into this training. You´re ready. Besides I think you have enough help from your family".

" My Family is either dead or wishes me dead".

" You still have Rath, Vilandra, Larek, Zan and Nolak. And we´re there, too even if you can´t see us. We´re always near", why couldn´t she see how much she still had? She wasn´t alone and she never would be.

Marianna glanced startled at her mother. How much did she know? " You know the others?".

" I´m dead. I see and know everything. And I was glad to see that you found people who care about you like I did", how could she be mad about people who treated her daughter like they treated their own children.

Marianna buried her head again at the chest of her mother. It still felt the same, like she remembered from the past. She wished she could stay here with her and forget about everything else. " But it wasn´t the same. Sometimes I think the part that could feel love died the day with you. And I feel guilty for guarding my heart from the others".

" You shouldn´t feel that way, because you gave them so much without realizing it", Leiana noticed that their time was slowly running out. She had to hurry up to say what she wanted to say. " Listen to me. Trust your friends. With their help you can do so much more than you could imagine. Don´t give up and don´t listen with your ears, listen with your heart".

Marianna detected that something wasn´t right. " What´s going on? Do you have to go?".

" We don´t have enough time anymore. Your friends are waiting for you and you have to go back", Leiana wished they had more time. She had still so much to say to her daughter. But this wasn´t a goodbye forever. She would see her sooner than Marianna thought.

Marianna shook her head and more tears leaked from her eyes. She couldn´t go now. " I don´t wanna leave. I want to stay here with you".

Leiana took the face of her daughter in her hands and made her look at her. " You have to go. But remember that you´re never alone. Your father and I will always be by your side".

" I can´t leave you alone here".

Suddenly another bright light appeared besides Leiana. A familiar shape got visible and Marianna almost swallowed her own tongue. It was Hewik or rather her father. " She´s not alone here. And I think you have people expecting you".

Marianna embraced her parents for the last time. " I love you both very much".

" We love you, too, Angel", Hewik gave her a kiss on her cheek and then he took the hand of Leiana. Together they just disappeared into nothing in front of Mariannas eyes.

**Armoury**

Rath and Vilandra were still sitting besides an unconsciouness Marianna. Both were frantic because a few minutes ago she started to cry and Zan was still gone. One held her hand in a deathgrip and the other stroked her head constantly. All of the sudden Marianna opened her eyes and her torso shot up from the ground. She was breathing heavy and seemed to be confused and disoriented for a moment. She was scanning the room, like she would look for someone.

" Marianna?", Rath was a little concerned. She wasn´t fully there with them. What happened during the time she was gone?

Marianna turned her head to Rath and starred at him like she would see him for the first time. But then a smile graced her face. " I saw my parents and it was wonderful".

" Where were you? Where you dead?", Vilandra didn´t think so, because they saw how her chest was rising and falling with every breath. But she had to ask that, in case something like that would happen again.

" No, I wasn´t dead. My mother told me we where in my head or something. I didn´t really question it. But they gave me something with me", the smile on her face grew wider. The fear and the panic was gone and was replaced with a new feeling.

Rath couldn´t understand the turn about in her personality. A few minutes ago she was a complete basket case and was panicing and now she was the calmness in person. " And what".

Marianna let her gaze wander from Rath to Vilandra. " Hope".

Before either of them both could question her sanity, Zan was storming into the room again, followed by a panting healer. " I´m back with help".

" I think we don´t need him anymore. I´m fine", Marianna arose from her position on the floor and slapped Raths hand away, which was trying to help her back on her feet.

Vilandra scratched her forhead. She had obviously missed something. Had she slept at some point, because the change of mind was disturbing. " I still don´t understand a few things. Why are you so happy now?".

Zan glanced at his sister and then at Marianna, who was emitting this calm glow. " What did I miss?".

Rath stepped closer to Marianna, in case she would crash back to the ground any minute. " Marianna saw her parents and now she´s completely changed".

" You saw your parents? Did you see Ava and my parents, too?", Zan saw a small ray of light shining into his dark hole. Maybe he would feel better if he knew how they were.

" No. I´m sorry. But I can tell you wherever they are at the moment, they are fine there and they´re not gone. You can´t just see them anymore". Marianna went to Zan and laid a hand on his chest. " They´re always in this place and nothing will change that".

Zan had tears in his eyes when he faced her. " Thank you".

" So and what are we doing now? We still have to plan an attack for tomorrow", Rath didn´t want to be the destroyer of this emotional get together. But they still had to think about what to do. They couldn´t forget that a war was knocking at their door and they hadn´t the time to clean the place before opening.

Marianna looked at the people around her. Her mother said that she had to trust her friends and everything would take care of itself after that." Alright. Rath you´re still taking over the training. Try your best to prepare them for the battle", she glanced at Vilandra. " You and Zan will carry the weapons and the armours upstairs and spread them out to the soldiers. They have to get familiar with their weapons and their armours".

" And what is your assignment?", Rath wasn´t against that she took over the role of the leader. But he was curious what she wanted to do in all this.

" I´ll take care of a back up plan. We need something if everything fails", Marianna already had the perfect plan in her head. She just needed to find Larek. He had to help her in this.

Rath nodded at that. That sounded reasonable and he trusted her. " Alright. Then let´s split up. We don´t have all day".

Immediately everybody moved in different directions. Zan and Vilandra started to collect every weapon they could find. Rath made his way to the training room and brought Nolak along the way as a advisor. And Marianna went looking for Larek.

Tomorrow at this time they either had won or they would be dead.

TBC


	30. Chapter 30

**Thanks everybody for reading this fic and thanks to those who wrote me such a nice feedback. This is the last chapter from this part of the story. Tell me what you think, if I should continue with the story on earth or not. I wish everybody a merry christmas and a happy new year. **

**Chapter 30 The last day of the royal family**

The night was slowly drawing to a close and some beams from the suns were already peaking over the mountains of Antar. The land was engulfed from a silence, like it knew what was laying ahead of the people in this kingdom. No sound was heard from the many dwellings of the citizen, because they were either in the castle or brought themself to a safe place. A slight breeze was brewing around and the smell of a new day was laying in the air. But nobody in the castle noticed anything of that. They were all to busy with preparing themself for the battle. Many men, more than expected, had agreed to join the soldiers in their fight for their kingdom. They all stood jittery and scared in the former ballroom. Everybody was dressed in their armour or if they hadn´t so much look, something selfmade. The weapons laid all on the sidewall in the room, where the new King and his sister were standing and waited to give them to the people. Their eyes were directed at the front, where two more members of the royal family placed themself. Rath and Marianna were positioned on a provisional podium, both in their armour. They seemed to be calm and collected, like they would be going to a exercise and not an actual war. Yet they were as scared as everybody inwardly. Raths heart was beating furiously in his chest and his hands were sweating like crazy. He went through everything he learned from his father and what he trained yesterday in his head. He wasn´t allowed to make a mistake in this or too much people would die. He watched all the faces in front of him and saw the fear in their eyes. Everybody of this men had left friends and family behind and were ready to fight for them and for their honour. He watched them yesterday and he was impressed of their strength and their will to survive. Rath took suddenly the hand of Marianna without taking his eyes off of the front. She however turned her head in his direction and watched him. Did he feel how scared she was and was trying to calm her down? Or was it the other way around? Slowly she faced the people again. She didn´t know most of them or couldn´t remember ever seeing their faces before. And yet they were here to help her, or rather them. She was grateful for their support and hoped that everything was taking a good ending. She thought about yesterday and the plan she told Larek. He was great and was immediately ready to help her. She threw him out of the army and made him part of the scientist. He was better with his head anyway and she wanted someone there, whom she could trust. It was important that he acted as soon as he noticed that they wouldn´t make it or else they could forget the whole plan. Larek talked with all the people and found out that there was a planet with same living conditions as Antar. He even showed it to her and she was stunned that there were more people than on the whole planet here. They weren´t so advance like they, but enough to survive there. The planet was called earth and their occupants were named humans. Marianna was excited about all the information and could finally skip to her other assignment. Namely finding out what was hiding behind the door in the armoury. And when she laid her eyes on the weapon Mael had told her about, did she have the urge to sit down for a moment. It was huge and looked like a oversize silver crystal. It seemed not so dangerous like she thought, but after she spoke with a few people, which had created that thing, was she amazed about the power it had. Unfortunately they weren´t finished with it and they couldn´t use it in their battle yet. But they promised they would work on it as fast as they could. And if they had luck it would still be useful.

" Alright. It´s time. Everyone who thinks he can´t stand the pressure or isn´t sure about the consequences, can still go", Rath wanted to get it over with finally. The more he waited the more nervous he got.

Nobody made a move or said anything. They were all ready to do what they were here for.

" Fine. Then get the weapons and we´re meeting us outside for the disposition", Rath watched how everybody went to Vilandra and Zan. The both had much to do with giving out the weapons. When he was sure that they had everything in order he turned to Marianna, which was extremely quiet the whole time. " Are you alright?".

Marianna seemed to come out of a trance. Slowly she faced him. " Actually no. But nothing to worry about. I´m just a little nervous".

Rath could understand that. He was the same. As a matter of fact he was scared out of his wits, althrough he was trained for this situation his whole life. He wished his father would be here to guide him. Thank god that Nolak was there yesterday. He had been a great help and a great friend. " Yeah. Me too".

" Damn. What were we thinking? We´re no commanders, we´re still kids", Marianna was close to lose her mind. Her stomach did flip flops and her head was spinning. She couldn´t go out there and fight a battle.

Rath took off his ring, he got from his father, from his middle finger. Then he gripped Mariannas hand and slipped it over her ring finger. He used his powers to adjust it to her size. After that he looked in her eyes, which were slowly filling with tears. " I want you to know that I love you and you made my life a little bit brighter. I can´t imagine a life without you anymore".

Marianna tried to prevent to break out in tears. That was beautiful. But what did the ring mean? Was he just asking her to marry him? " Rath. What are you doing?".

" If we survive this, I want you to be my wife".

Marianna couldn´t contain her tears any longer and they fell freely from her eyes. She saw to the ring on her finger. It was nothing expensive or even remarkable, it was just a plain silver band, but it was the most beautiful gift she ever received and to her it was everything. " Yes".

" Really? That´s great", Rath embraced her tightly. Over her shoulder he could see Zan and Vilandra giving him the thumps up. He smiled at them. He was so glad that she accepted his proposal. It wasn´t just quiet as romantic as expected, but he didn´t plan exactly anything. It was more a on the spur of the moment thing.

Marianna couldn´t quite believe what just happened. One moment she was freaking out and the next she was so excited that she could hug everybody in sight. She was so happy and forgot for a moment why they were here actually. Once more she eyed the ring on her finger and a huge smile appeared on her face.

" Hey. What is taking so long? We´re all waiting. Get your asses in gear and move it", Nolak was standing at the door and watched them all with impatience. They had no time for chit chat. They were facing a war and he didn´t think that Khivar would wait, just because the commanders where in a romantic moment.

Rath and Marianna released each other kinda embarressed. Then they turned their heads in his direction. " Yeah. Yeah. We´re coming", Rath held the hand of his fiance and together they climbed down the podium.

Zan and Vilandra were waiting for them at the entrance. They also were dressed in a armour, althrough Marianna wasn´t so content with the whole Vilandra wants the fight concept. There was even a slight discussion, which of course Vilandra won. She said something like " If we´re going down, then everybody together". That was the end of it and now all four were standing in front of the biggest challenge they had to face in their lifes. But it was decided that they would stand together, no matter what.

" Are you both really sure you want to do that?", Marianna tried for the last time to give them a chance to back out and bring themself into a safer place. After that they couldn´t do that anymore.

" Of course. It´s not just your job to protect the kingdom. It´s ours, too", Vilandra was scared to death and she couldn´t eat something since yestereday. Her heartrate seemed to have doubled and her whole body shook like crazy. But she was ready to fight for her home and the only people she still had in her life.

" That´s what I wanted to say, too", Zan wasn´t as familiar with weapons like Rath, but he knew what he had to do with it and he knew how to handle it. What more was to know? Besides since the sadness was gone he developed a new feeling. Hate combined with rage. And this feeling wanted to be taken to good use.

Nolak rolled his eyes. All this sentimental stuff was robbing his last nerv. They didn´t have much time and they wasted it for such trivial things. " Great. Now after that´s out of the way, we can finally go".

Everybody faced each other and breathed deeply in before they made their way out the door. The closer they got to their destination the more they were scared. Every step was like a step into their deaths. When they finally arrived by the soldiers and the temporary soldiers, the moment of truth had began. Immediately Rath started to get into commander mode and told everybody where he wanted him to be. Nolak stayed with him and helped. Vilandra and Zan waited till they learned which place they were assigned to. Meanwhile Marianna went to Larek to put the first part of the plan into action.

" Are you ready?".

Larek didn´t look so ready actually. Quite the opposite. " Honestly. No. But let´s just get it over with".

Marianna took his hand and gave it a encouraging squeeze. Then she stepped closer to him and didn´t let go of his hand. Larek prepared himself for a moment before he blinked with his eyes. Within seconds they both were gone.

When they finally appeared again, they were standing at the shore. Both a little confused and Marianna a bit nauseous, because she wasn´t used to travel like that. She pressed her hand on her belly and hoped that her stomach would settle soon. Larek noticed that his companion didn´t feel to well and brought her further away from the water. When he discovered a big rock he steered them in the direction of it. After that he sat her on it and placed himself beside her. Softly he rubbed her back while she bent her head down.

" Do you feel like that everytime you shift through space?", Marianna was curious, because if that was the case, she would never do that again.

Larek had to smile when he remembered the first time he shifted. He was just a nine year old boy and everybody had discovered their powers, except for him. He was pretty down and Rath wanted to cheer him up. They played with a hioef (ball) throw and catch. At some point he was distracted, because Vilandra showed Ava how to bewitch a man. The next thing he knew, Rath hollered his name and he turned back, just in time to see the hioef flying directly to him. Scared he closed his eyes and then he felt like he would fly through a tunnel. When he opened his eyes again he was standing a few feets away from the place he original stood. Before he could enjoy his new powers, his stomach catched up with him and he puked his guts out. In front of Vilandra, Ava and a laughing Rath. " It´s just the first few times. After that your body grows accustomed to it. I felt worse than you the first time I shifted. It will pass".

Just as this sentence was finished Marianna lifted her head and breathed deeply in. The nauseou was gone, thankfully. " I think my stomach has finally found its rightful place again".

" Are you feeling better?", Larek didn´t stop his caressing and watched how her cheeks got her rosy colour back.

Marianna nodded her head. Althrough she was scared to shift again. " Yeah. At least for the moment".

Larek quit stroking her back and turned his head to the sea. The water was looking so calm this morning and the moon shining on it made it appear like a big, black hole that would suck everybody into nothing. How could something so harmless look so treatening in the dark? " Are you scared?".

Marianna faced him and then glanced in the same direction. If she was scared? Of course. She was absolutely terrfied actually. " More than ever before".

" Then why are you still here and not somewhere safe?".

" Because my father told me that you can´t run away from your responsibility and you have to fight for what you believe in. And I believe in this people, which were so kind to take me in and into their hearts. Plus I can´t let my family down. I made a promise to my mother and Mael. And I never broke a promise", Marianna knew it was worth to fight for a few things. Things like family, honour and love. Now she finally understood what her father tried to tell her all this years. He said, if you want to be a really good warrior, your heart has to be really in it and you must believe the reason for which you are fighting for.

Larek wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pressed her at his side. She was such a unbelievable person and she didn´t see it. He never envied Rath like in this moment. Maybe if they survived this, he would find someone like her someday. " I never meet someone so brave and so reckless like you. Nothing seems to faze you or makes you wanna hide until the danger is over. But I think you need this traits to get involved with Rath".

Marianna laughed about that. He wasn´t the wrong about that. Yet she didn´t think that she was so brave. She was just doing what was right. Nothing more. " I´m not so great like you think. I´m just a normal girl, which wants to protect her family".

" You´re much. But normal isn´t one of it. Or do you think Rath would have fallen in love with you if you were just an ordinary girl?", Larek didn´t think so. His friend didn´t believe in love until he meet her. That meant she had to be special to win his heart. No other girl had made it that far with him actually. Because he waited all his life for her.

Marianna saw on her finger and the ring. It was still unbelievable to think he wanted to marry her. " He asked me to be his wife if we survive today".

" No really?", Larek was stunned to hear that. His friend had finally find the guts to do the right thing. Halleluja.

Marianna lifted her hand and showed him the ring. " Really. It wasn´t romantic or the perfect moment. But I said yes", now that she said that out loud she finally realized what happend and what she accepted. " Oh godness. I must be braindead to marry him. What was I thinking?".

Larek couldn´t contain his laughter. It finally dawn on her what she got herself into. " You were thinking that you love him and you can´t live with him anymore and all this romantic crap".

" Now you sound like you´re talking about Zan and Ava. We´re not like that actually", althrough he wasn´t that far from the truth. Sometimes they acted really mushy, especially when they were alone. If he wanted Rath could be a sweety. Not that she would anybody tell about it.

" But you love him, right?".

Marianna looked at him like he said something crazy. Wasn´t it obvious that she loved Rath. Or did he think she accepted his proposal just for the heck of it? " Of course I love him. More than anything".

Larek kissed her on the temple and squeezed her shoulder. That was what he wanted to hear all along. Now she finally found the courage to state it openly. " I´m really happy for you and Rath".

" Thanks. It means so much...", Mayra stopped suddenly in mid-sentence, because she could hear something. Carefully she turned her gaze to the sea. The calmness of the water was disturbed. She took a closer look and detected a few little boats heading in their direction. " It´s time. We have to go back".

Larek twirled his head to the water and noticed it, too. His heart was pumping like crazy in his chest. Now the situation got serious. Tightly holding onto Marianna he blinked them away. Moments later they appeared directly in front of Rath, which jumped back startled.

" Holy Shit. Can´t you give me a damn sign that you´re coming. I almost pissed my pants".

Larek ignoried his friend and watched Marianna instead. She looked better than the first time they shifted. " Everyhing alright?".

" Yeah. Now get yourself into safety", she embraced him, hopefully not for the last time. " Be careful".

Larek released her and smiled. She didn´t have to worry about him. He wasn´t in immediate danger like her. " I can say the same about you. Don´t get yourself killed. Both of you".

Rath put his arm around Mariannas shoulder and smirked at his friend. " We´re careful. Now scat".

Larek had to laugh while he blinked himself into the science lab to the other eggheads. He still had a few things to prepare for Plan B. He hoped they didn´t need it and it was just for backup.

Marianna looked up at her partner besides her when they were alone. She could see that he was as worried as her. For the first time she noticed that he lost his mask, which he hid behind to cover his emotions. Now the fear was clearly written on his face and it made her feel a little better, because she wasn´t alone with her feelings. " Is everything set?".

" Yeah. Everbody is hiding at their assigned place and waiting for the signal".

Marianna glanced around her and detected that nobody was near them. They were standing alone in front of the castle. And now the seriousness of the situation hit her like a bullet. But before she could go in total panic mood she felt a hand softly on her shoulder and she calmed down immediately. She knew the touch even if he was just lightly. Her parents made their presence known.

Suddenly Rath´s whole body tensed and he pulled his laser sword out of his belt. " Their coming. Get your weapon".

Without hesitation took Marianna her own laser sword and went into her fighting stance. For someone so small like her she looked absolutely terrifying, with her darkening eyes that were sparkling full of hate. Althrough inwardly she was shaking with fear, nothing was to see on the outside. She hid her feelings as well as Rath. " I want to get rid of something before I lose the guts. I want you to know that I..".

" Don´t say it. You can say it to me when this is over. If you say it now, it sounds like we don´t make it", Rath didn´t want to hear it. Especially in this situation. Besides he felt it all along and knew how much she loved him.

Marianna didn´t let her sight waver from the front. " I just want you to know that I really do".

" I know", Rath saw movement coming near them. It was finally time to take action. He gripped his sword so tightly that his knuckles turned white from it. His pulse rate had trippled within seconds and the adrenalin was strong pumping though his body.

Marianna also noticed that they weren´t alone any longer. But contrary to her partner she dropped her arm with the sword to the ground. It wasn´t necessary yet. Khivar men would be too surprised about their presence that they wouldn´t attack immediately. Suddenly a sound of many yelling was drifting to their ears and the trampling of many feets. It was finally time for the show to begin. Rath let his gaze wander to Marianna. Without realizing what he was doing he grapped her shoulders, pulled her strongly at his body and kissed her like he never kissed her before. He wanted to taste her the last time in case he would never have to chance to do it again. He put every feeling in it and tried to memorize the flavour of her lips, the smell of her body and the warmth of her mouth. After a while he released her and starred in her baffled face. " Sorry. But I needed that".

" It´s alright. I liked it", Marianna tried to controll her heating body. Oh Boy, hopefully they made it through this battle. If every kiss would be like that she didn´t want it to be the last. Out of the corner of her eyes she regnorized the first soldiers from Khivar army heading in their direction. Immediately she turned around and took her fighting stance again.

Rath did the same and made himself ready to use his sword. He was more than ready to kill some bastards, because he had much energy to burn now. He observed the men running straight at them and noticed the moment they noticed that their attack wasn´t such a surprise like they thought. Confused they stopped in their tracks instantly and looked around. Moments later a guy was pushing his way through the mass of bodies. " What is going on? Why are you stopping?".

" Surprise!", Marianna clapped in her hands, alright it wasn´t a real clap because she had still her sword in her hand, but it was supposed to be a clap and put on her nicest smile. If she wouldn´t be so nervous she would have been jumping up down like a mindless little dolly her brother liked to lay down.

Nikolais jaw almost hit the ground and his eyes got so wide that they nearly covered his whole face. " What is this here? How did you know about this?".

Rath smirked cockily. " Do you think your the only one with information?".

" I think he believes that", added Marianna. Then she made a sad face at her half brother. " Did we destroy your surprise? Is little Nikolai sad now? Poor boy all this work for nothing", she pouted like a little child and enjoyed the rage on his face.

Nikolai was close to do something stupid. How dare her to mock him in front of his men? He was mad at himself for feeling pity with her and sparing her life, althrough he had much possibilities to kill her. He had been crazy to do that. " What do you wanna do? We´re so many and you´re just a twosome. How many damage can you really do?"

Rath looked around him, than to the men in front of him and at last to Marianna. " He doesn´t believe in us. So sad actually. Should we show him how many damage we can do?", he waited until he got a nod from her. That was all he needed before he put his thump and his forefinger into his mouth and whistled pretty loud.

Immediately almost all his soldiers came out of their hiding places and encircled the enemy. Everybody was holding his weapon ready in his hand and was just waiting to use them. The people with the crossbows were positioned further away and aimed their weapons at the heads of their opponents.

" Now you were saying?", Marianna couldn´t hold that comment back. It was looking pretty good for them now.

Nikolai scratched his chin and tried to refrain from smiling. Did she think it would be so easy? Or that Vilandra came onto this information alone with her lousy powers? She should know him better than that. With a faintly nod he gave his other soldiers the sign to appear from behind. " That I wouldn´t be so happy in your place. You´re not as smart as you think".

Before either Marianna nor Rath could understand what he was trying to imply, more soldiers from Khivars army came running from behind the castle and were instantly starting to fight. Within seconds the place was filled with screams and striking sparks of the swords. Arrows, laser bullets and bolts were breezing through the air and sometimes someone was hit and fell to the ground. Most of the time they didn´t stand up or if they weren´t so lucky got trampled from someone, because nobody cared if there was lying a person or not. They just continued with their fight and didn´t watch where they put their food on.

Vilandra was in the midst of the battle and tried to shot as many men as she could with her lasergun. It was hard to aim directly at someone when you didn´t have too much time and so many bodies available. She thought about what Marianna had told her if she should got nervous or was on the brink to lose her focus. Alright, breath, concentrate and think about all the pain they put you through. Slowly her anger was back in full force and she finished two men off with just one bullet. Elated through her success she finally got really comfortable with her weapon and shot one bullet after another.

Zan on the other hand was still hesitant with his laser sword. Althrough it wasn´t the first time he held a weapon in his hand. He was still reluctant to kill anyone, even if it was either his life or this of the enemy. He was so sure that his anger would lead him through this battle. But now everything was gone and the only thing he felt was this terrifying fear. Here and there he dodge a blow from his opponent and yet he wasn´t in the condition to fight back. Suddenly he saw a bright light near the outerwall. Through the mass of people he noticed a girl in a white dress. She seemed to float above the ground and her dress was moving like she was standing in the middle of a storm. Then he regnorized the smiling face staring back at him. His beloved Ava. She was just visible for a few seconds, but it was all Zan needed to remember the reason for what he was fighting for. With a new energy boost he waved his sword through the air and run straight into the crowd.

Meanwhile Rath was fully in his element. He turned in all direction and striked every man who dared to go against him with his sword. He didn´t care if they were living people, he just saw them as a threat to his remaining family. He beheaded two soldiers with one swift move and then he twirled around to put his sword through the middle of another. From time to time he fought off a blow in his direction and sometimes he barely avoided beeing hit by something sharp. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed a soldier trying to surprise him with his weapon. With an antarian curse he made a somersault backwards and landed directly behind the mentioned man. Without waiting for him to realize what just happend Rath waved his sword through his middle and divided the poor sap into two halfs. It was disgusting to see how his torso slipped from his lower part of his body with a smacking noise until it landed with a thud on the ground. Pleased with himself Rath watched for another victim and discovered someone starring in absolute hate at him. Oh yeah finally he could finish what he started without Marianna interrupting him this time. It was time for her exfiance to say goodbye forever. He pushed his way through the mass of fighting people and went straight to him. His sword tightly gripping in his hand and a mask of anger on his face. His opponent didn´t back down and meet him halfway. Without saying a word they both attacked each other simultanously. Sparks were flying when their swords collied.

" Finally we meet again", Rath pushed his weapon down on that from his opponent and tried to get the upper hand in this fight.

Lykus wasn´t scared of him. Not this time. Now there was no one who could disturb them. It was just the two of them. " Yeah. Where´s your bodyguard?".

" I don´t need a bodyguard, contrary to you weakling! I would have killed you on the spot that day", Rath was tired of this chit chat and threw his head forward until it collided with Lykus. Immediately the other guy stumbled backwards and almost crashed to the ground.

" That was the wrong thing to do", Lykus got a mean twinkle in his eyes and he threw his sword in the air. With a scream he attacked Rath again.

Marianna in the meantime had slight problems with her right arm. An arrow put himself through her armour and directly through her shoulder. Althrough the arrow was out of the wound it hurt like hell, at least when she move it, what entailed most of the time, because it was the arm with the sword in her hand. But she didn´t let a small scratch distract her and fought her way through the fighting bodies. She waved her sword in all direction and killed at least five men without looking by the way. She had found Nikolai in the middle and he was just standing there and watched her like he was just waiting for her. Alright, the final confrontation was there. Now they would see who was the best soldier on the planet. On her way to her halfbrother she regnorized Vilandra and Zan. For someone who had no experience in fighting, they were holding on for all it was worth. Suddenly she heard a howling noise near her and instantly ducked her head. Seconds later a sword was breezing over the top of it. A few seconds later and she would have lost her head and that literally. Still in her crouched position she twirled around and cut off his legs with one blow. Blood was splatting in all direction and her opponent screamed of pain while he fell to the ground. Marianna stepped closer to his fallen form and looked in his eyes. She wanted to be sure this time that she didn´t kill someone she liked again. She glanced closer at them and didn´t know the owner. She lifted her sword in the air with both hands and let it drop really quickly. Before the man knew what was happening, she chopped off his head from his throat and it rolled a few feets away. Marianna had to look away when she saw his vains shooting the blood out. After that she scanned the crowd for Nikolai. But she couldn´t detect him, no matter in which direction she turned. Suddenly a tap on her shoulder startled her and she twirled around. There she came face to face with her halfbrother.

" Were you looking for me?".

Marianna smiled at him. He was such a smart guy for someone with a brain of the size of a pea. " What gave me away?".

" You think you´re so brave and tough. I will teach you the opposite", Nikolai took a fighting stance and held up his sword with both hands.

Marianna did the same and because she couldn´t help herself she threw him a kiss. " Alright. Let´s bring it on".

While they both fought against each other, Vilandra was busy with keeping the men off of her. It got more and more by the second and she had problems holding on. Paniced she didn´t try to aim at someone specifically and just shot randomly around her. She didn´t care anymore if she hit a body or not, she just wanted to survive this. Suddenly her lasergun seemed to jam, because nothing happened anymore. It stopped shoting bullets. Desperate she shook it and even beat on it. But nothing worked. Quickly turning around she spotted a crossbow behind her lying on the ground, with the owner of it, some soldier from their army, beneath it. Without thinking she went to it and pry it out of the hands of the man. For someone dead he had still a strong grip on it. Roughly she pulled at the crossbow and tried to wrench it away. At the end of her patience she hit the poor man with her fist. All at once she heard Zan calling her name. Immediately she twirled around and saw a soldier running in her direction with a lasergun aimed at her. Before she could react or say something a bullet flew through the air. But before she could say her last prayer, a green shield built around her, where the bullet just bounced off and dropped on the floor there. A little shaken up Vilandra faced her brother and noticed that he was the one who saved her life. Suddenly her eyes widened and she pointed with her finger at Zan.

" Watch out!".

Unfortunately Zan wasn´t quick enough and before he could turn around a soldier had already stabbed him from behind. Vilandra watched how Zans eyes starred shocked back at her and blood oozing from his mouth. At first he crashed onto his knees and then he just fell on the ground with the rest of his body.

" Nnnnnnnooooooooooo!", Vilandra dropped down and started crying violently in her hands. Not her brother. He was all of her real family she got and now he died because he saved her. That wasn´t fair. If someone should have died and it should have been her. Just as the thought was finished her wish came true. An arrow bored himself into her neck and through her throat until the head of it appeared again. Instantly she struggled for breath and touched the spot with both of her hands. She could feel a warm sticky fluid dripping through her fingers. Slowly the air got less and less the more blood flew in her windpipe and shattered every chance of breathing. Paniced she tried to fight against the unavoidable. Seconds later everything was over and she stopped her battle.

Marianna, which was in the process to exhaust Nikolai with unceasinly blows of her sword, heard a loud scream. It sounded like Vilandra. Something must be going wrong. Instantly she used her powers and blasted her opponent away straight at a few of his men. Then she twirled in the direction of the noise and noticed Vilandra falling onto her knees. Without knowing what happened, Marianna started running to her. Halfway she saw the arrow flying through the air and directly at her friend. Scared she pushed her body to run faster and gave it all. But to her disappointment she was to slow and the arrow hit his target. When she arrived at Vilandras side everything was over. Tears gathered in her eyes of the sight of her dead friend. Carefully she bent down and closed her eyes with her hand. Suddenly she felt someone behind her. Quickly she turned around with her drawn sword.

" Hey! Careful! It´s just me", thankfully it was just Rath, which looked really bad. His armour had a few tears and his hands were bloody. His hair were plastered to his forehead and a few scratches graced his beautiful face.

" I was too late. I watched the arrow and I couldn´t do anything to prevent it from hitting her", Marianna arose from her position and looked around. She should have never allowed her to join them, she should have more persistant about her safety. She knew that they wouldn´t make it and now she had prove for that. Prove that she actually didn´t want.

Rath kept an eye on their surroundings. They were too much in the open and every moment someone could detect them. They didn´t have the advantage of the dark any longer. The day had begun and it was light outside. They couldn´t make mistakes now. It was sad that Vilandra was dead, but they were in a war and didn´t have time to mourn. They could do that when everything was over. During the scanning, he found the dead body of Zan. For a moment he felt a tear in his heart at the sight. Now it was official. His whole family was gone. Except for Marianna he had nobody at all. He faced her just in time to see a soldier storming at her with a laser sword ready in his hand. Immediately he reacted and grapped her. After that he turned them around and protected her body with his own.

" What´s going on?", Marianna was confused for a moment because Rath twirled her around like a doll. But then she regnorized the sword coming at them and how it bore through his armour and straight through his middle. She looked in his pained eyes the moment he was stabbed. The panic and the fear in it was heartwrenching. She watched the owner of the sword pulling it out of him with a smile on his face. Rath let a moan escape before he fell to the ground. Instantly Marianna waved her sword in the air and chopped his head off without any mercy. Then because she couldn´t help herself she spit on his carcass before she dropped to her knees besides Rath, which was lying on the ground with blood pooling around him.

" Don´t die. Please don´t die".

Rath knew that the death was knocking at his door any moment. Strangly he didn´t feel scared. Except for the coldness he actually felt nothing. " Don´t worry. This is not the end, it´s just the beginning of a great adventure".

" What are you talking about?", Marianna had ditched her sword and was frantically looking for a way to open the armour. She saved Corly with her powers, she could do it now again. She wouldn´t let him die. No, she would move heaven and hell to prevent that from happening.

Rath grasped her hands and made her look at him. He didn´t have enough time to waste. " Death is not the end, but the beginning of something new".

" If you start to talk in riddles now, I have to get nasty", Marianna wrenched her hands from his grip and continued looking for an opening. They put it on, then there must be way to pull it off. " Damn it! Why doesn´t this thing make what I want!".

Rath felt this calmness slowly seeping into his body. It was almost time. " Because it isn´t your job to save me. My time went up".

" I will not let you die! I can´t watch you die, so please don´t force me to do nothing", Marianna wouldn´t stand it to see how the light in his eyes died down. She didn´t want to witness how everything that made Rath who he was disappeared. A lump was forming in her throat just at this thought.

Rath took all of his remaining strength and lifted his arm. Tenderly her stroked her cheek with his hand. They would see each other again, he was sure of it. Nothing could break them apart. Not even death. " I´ll be always at your side. You will never be alone. I love you".

Marianna struggled against her tears, which were threatening to fall from her eyes. She had to give him up if she wanted or not. But it was hard, because he was all she had left now. She didn´t want to let him go. But she knew that she had to. " I love you, too. So much more than you think". Slowly she bent down and kissed her lover.

Rath enjoyed the last moment with her. He was grateful for all the times they spent together, no matter if bickering or making love or just glaring at each other. He wouldn´t trade his memory for everything on this planet. She made him feel things that he didn´t know existed. For the first time he had felt what it was like to love somebody unconditionally.

Marianna noticed that his hand was slowly sliding from her face and his lips stopped moving. In that moment her world came crashing down on her. She laid her head on his chest like she did with her father and cried while she held onto him. The pain in her heart seemed to crush her. Finally she understood what Zan felt when he lost Ava. It was like someone ripped her heart out of her chest with bare hands and trampled on it. Over and over again she mumbled how much she loved him, althrough she knew that he didn´t hear it anymore. She regretted that her fear kept her from saying it sooner to him.

" Oh. Is little Marianna all alone now? So sad. Really", Nikolai appeared in front of her and talked to her like she was a little child.

Marianna raised her head and looked at the reason for all her pain. Within seconds her sadness disappeared and she could feel powers building in her body. She observed her hands, which started to glow in a bright light. Suddenly the sky darkened dramatically and thunderbolts were striking. The balmy breeze was turning into a storm. The ground under their feets began to shook and here and there a gap in it would open up and swallow some of the soldiers. " That was the wrong move".

Nikolai wasn´t scared this time. She couldn´t keep that up long anyway. He even wasn´t suprised as her eyes turned black and were boring into him. " I like the light show. But don´t you have anything different. It get´s boring if you see it for the second time".

Marianna stood up and stretched her hands in the direction of the sky. Seconds later a thunderbolt was striking directly into her hands. For a few moments they crinkled with electricity before she shoot her arms at him and let some of it out. Laughing she saw Nikolai jumping to the side. Maybe she could play a game with him until she got bored and just killed him. But she didn´t came to that anymore. While she was so obsessed with destroying her halfbrother, Lykus had found a crossbow and aimed it at her head. Before she noticed anything, an arrow went right through her head and killed her instantly. Like a stone she fell on top of Rath and bled on him.

Nikolai turned to his soldiers, which were still in the process of fighting the few still alive men from King Salems army. " Everybody listen. The royals are dead. Our work is done. It´s time to go home and celebrate our victory".

At this shouting was heard all over the place. Happily they tossed their opponent aside and made their way back home. Everything was over and they had won. While they made their retreat they started to sing an antarian song.

Meanwhile Nolak, which was pretty hurt but still alive, went to his fosterlings. Wasted he sat himself in the middle between Rath with Marianna on top and Vilandra besides them and Zan. All this work for nothing. He was so sure that they would make it. They were so willing to fight and they seemed so optimistic. And now everything was lost. For the first time in his life Nolak began to cry. Until someone appeared suddenly in front of him. Quickly he wiped his tears from his face and looked up at the sad face of Larek.

" What are you doing here?".

Lareks eyes filled with tears at the sight of all his friends dead. But at least they didn´t die alone. " I´m here to put Plan B into action. If you´re up to it you can help me carry them down into the science lab".

" What Plan B?", Nolak was confused what he was talking about. Which Plan? And why didn´t he know of this Plan?

Larek bent down to Rath and Marianna. Even in death they were together. " Marianna made preparation in case they would fail. But we have to hurry or we can´t forget it".

" Can you stop talking in riddles! Tell me about this Plan B", Nolak had to patience at the moment. Here they were standing by all this dead bodies and Larek spouted all this rubbish. If he didn´t start explaining a few things, it would get ugly here.

" We don´t have time for that. I will tell you everything. But just trust me and help me carry them into the science lab before it´s too late", Larek wasn´t that strong actually, but Marianna wasn´t so heavy. With remorse he threw her over his shoulders and apologized about the bad treatment.

Nolak wasn´t smarter than before. But he trusted Larek to do the right thing. Without saying anything he put his hands under the body of Vilandra and lifted her. Then he made his way into the castle while Larek blinked himself away. After a while they repeated the process and dragged the others into the science lab. Behind closed doors they went to work and tried to give their friends a new chance to change something.

The End of part One


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31 The Abductions**

**Santa Fe / New Mexico 1982**

Diane Evans was sitting in her little garden in front of her house and took care of her flowers. It was such a nice day and she didn´t want to waste it indoors. Usually she was at work at this time, but this morning she didn´t feel to well and her husband told her to stay at home. Thank god that she could do that without problems, because she was married to the boss for three years now and he was the reason for her illness. He was the one who got her pregnant four months ago in the first place. The doctor told them a few days ago that it would be twins, a girl and a boy. Philip was so excited and listed all the things they needed and what had to be done until they would be born. Diane wiped the sweat from her face and brushed her blonde hair from her forehead. Slowly it was getting warmer and the work was more straining than before. Shortly she looked back to the house. It had been a gift from their parents when they tied the bond and they had loved it. But now they were looking for something bigger, because of the increase of their family. Philip searched after something, when he didn´t sit in his office and worked at a new case. As a lawer he hadn´t much to do in this town, but he inherited the company from his father a few years ago and he didn´t want to offend him in any way. For days now he looked up every offer for a nice, big house in their price range. Althrough they both were working and their parents would surely give them money if they wanted it, they wanted to save as much as they could for their children. They should grow up with everything they needed and shouldn´t go without something. Diane and Philip wanted to give their kids a good education and the option to be whatever they wanted like them. They both went to law school and made their exam there. Philip was in his second last year and Diane in her second year when they meet at a party of her parents. Strange, they went by each other every day, but they didn´t notice the other until that evening. They talked all night about everything and nothing. Three years later they were married and now they had two children on the way. Diane had at her age of 26 everything she wanted. Life was starting to get really good. With that thought she draw her attention to her flowers again. Just as she wanted to stand up to get more water, a bright light blinded her. Within seconds she felt kinda dizzy and her stomach did flip flop. After that she lost her consciousness. When she came around again, she felt someone shaking her and calling her name. Carefully she opened her eyes and glanced in the horrified face of her husband, which was frantically trying to get a reaction out of his wife.

" Oh thank go, you´re awake", Philip embraced her relieved. He just came home and found her lying lifelessly on the ground. He had been on the brink to call an ambulance.

Diane watched her surroundings and noticed that the sun were in the process to go down. What happened? How long had she been out cold? " What time is it?".

Philip released his wife and saw into her eyes. She seemed to be pretty confused at the moment. Why did she ask about the time? " Just after six".

" What? The last time a took a look at my watch it was shortly after three", she couldn´t have been unconsciouness for three hours? And why did nobody notice her lying there? Someone had to have seen her.

Philip got slowly worried. Maybe something was wrong with the babies. But her doctor had told them just a few days ago that everything went smoothly and they shouldn´t worry. " I should bring you into the hospital. Just to be sure".

" Yeah. I think that´s a good idea", Diane didn´t want to take chances with the life of her children. It was better to be safe than sorry.

Philip carefully helped his wife on her feet and supported her until they arrived at the car. Slowly he sat her into it and went around to the driver side. Then he drove in the direction of the hospital.

**Roswell / New Mexico at the same time**

Amy Valenti, a pregnant young woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes, walked along the sidewalk through the mainstreet with two shopping bags in her hands. It was slowly getting dark and she hurried as much as her weakening legs would carry her. She was in her sixth month now and her belly looked a bit out of the picture. She was a pretty petite woman and now she looked like she swallowed a bowling ball. She couldn´t wait for their twins to be born, because then she could finally see her feet again and her back would stop paining her. Her husband Jim had been so excited to hear that they would get a boy and a girl. They both were so happy when they found out that she was pregnant, just half a year after they married. Althrough Amy was still young, she got 20 a few month ago, she wasn´t scared to bring this children in this world. They were the prove of the love she shared with her husband. What could be scary at it? A few days ago she and Jim brought their first house. It wasn´t big or even the most beautiful building, but it was theirs and she loved it. They were still in the process to decorate a few rooms and fix the important things in the house, but her husband promised that everything would be set before the children would be born. He worked every minute he wasn´t in the sheriff department as deputy on repairing or painting. It was so cute to watch him when he tried to put a nail into a wall and he hit beneath it. Sometimes he hit a spot he just repaired or his thump and he cursed that even a sailor would get red ears from it. But even with all this cursing and the hard work, he didn´t want help. He refused the offer from his father to help him. He wanted to do everything by himself, because it was his house and he would fix it with his own hands. That was the reason why she fell in love with him four years ago, when he arrested her for underaged drinking at a rave. Back then he was still a newbie at the sheriff station, just fresh out of the police academy. It was his second day at work and the sheriff told him he should check the soap factory, which got closed a few months ago because of bankrupt. And there he discovered a illegally party with hundreds of underaged people. Immediately when he set a foot into the building the kids got scared and tried to get the hell out of there. And because Jim didn´t have any backup at the moment he just could get his hands on one of them, namely Amy, which was searching for her friends in the crowd. Of course she didn´t find them, instead she found herself hauled into a police car, but not without trying to talk her way out of it and she even used her charme to do that and staying the night in a cold, smelly cell with a drunken man and a purse robber. Thankfully Jim treated her really nice after he noticed that she got quite and even brought her something to eat and to drink. He noticed her discomfort and talked to her until her parents came and got her out of there. Since that day they both spent much time together and althrough their parents weren´t delighted about their relationship, because Amy was just 16 and Jim already 22, they managed everything. Amy didn´t go to college like her parents told her and she worked now at a shop which sold alien items and such strange things. No wonder in a town where aliens should have landed in 1947. Amy didn´t believe that and she didn´t think that there were other worlds up there. It was all just a rumor to pull the money out of the pockets from dumb people who believed that crap, nothing more. Suddenly a bright light threw her out of her thoughts. Startled she let her shopping bags drop to the ground and looked hypnotised into the blinding light. Within seconds she crashed to the ground and darkness engulfed her. Hours later she opened her eyes again and the first things she saw was the face of her husband. His blue eyes looked worried and scared at her. Slowly Amy surveyed her surroundings and noticed the white walls around her. Confused she faced Jim again.

" Where am I?".

Jim, who was still in his deputy uniform, bent forward and stroked her cheek. Finally the colour had returned to them and she looked better again. He had been scared of losing his family. But now he was relieved that she was awake. " You´re in the hospital, honey. Jeff Parker found you laying on the sidewalk and he immediately called an ambulance and after that me", it was the worst phone call he ever received in his life and he broke every law coming here. " Can you remember what happened?".

Amy shook her head. Everything was still fuzzy in her brain. She just remembered that light and after that everything was blank. She probably just fainted. She hadn´t felt alright the whole day and she shouldn´t have walked all the way. " I was on my way home. I went to the grocery shop and brought a few things. When I walked back I saw this bright light and then everythings after that is gone".

" It´s alright. I´m just glad that nothing happened to you", Jim kissed the forehead of his wife. He talked to a doctor and he told him that it wasn´t unusual for a woman to faint in her pregnancy. But she should rest more from now on and avoid every kind of stress.

Suddenly Amy got a worried expression on her face. " What about the babies? Are they alright?".

Jim smiled at her. The doctor said they weren´t harmed in any way. Everything was going like expected. " Don´t worry. Their fine. Strong and healthy like their father".

" Thank God", Amy rubbed her round belly. She couldn´t have beared the thought of losing them, because she wasn´t careful enough. " When can I get out of here? The smell makes me kinda sick".

" I´ll ask the doctor and if he gives his ok, we´ll leave", Jim kissed his wife again and then stood up to look for someone. Before he went out the door he turned to her once more. " Don´t ever do that to me again".

Amy laughed about that. He didn´t have to worry about that anymore. Everything would go different from now on. " I promise".

With a last smile Jim made his way out of the room.

**Tucson / Arizona around noon**

Cindy Adams just stepped into her bedroom after a hard shopping tour through the baby stores. Relieved she kicked her sandals from her feet and let herself slump on the armchair near the window. Before she got pregnant she enjoyed to walk all day long around the mall and try on new clothes or just look through the newest collection of jewellery. But now that she was in her seventh month she couldn´t stand on her feet that long anymore and every minute she had to find a restroom, because her bladder went crazy. Furthermore she didn´t fit in the nice dresses she saw and it was a reminder that she looked like a watermelon now. Alright she was pregnant, but why couldn´t the designer make something for expecting women? Was it too much to ask to create beautiful clothes for pregnant woman? It was bad enough that they got thicker, their feets swelled like waterballons and their backs hurt like hell. But than to look in the mirror and see the tent you had one was depressing. Cindy rubbed her round belly. She loved her children, yes it were two of it, which grew under her heart, there was no doubt about it. But she was glad when they came out and her body turned into its normal form. She watched out of the window and eyed the nice weather there. Usually when she wasn´t in college, she would sit in her deckchair at the big pool and relax with a good book. However she didn´t like the stare she got from the attentands when she walked by with her huge belly and therefore wanted to avoid that they would see her in a bathing suit and stare more. So now she enjoyed the weather from her bedroom and waited till her husband Jason came home from work. He was a employee in the company of her father, which was the supplier of piece parts for many big known car manufacturer. Her father owned nothing when he started his business thirty years ago. Nothing except for his knowledge and his strong will to make something of his life. And now he was one of the richest persons in the USA. Despite his awefully fortune he was actually pretty normal. But that was probably because of her mother, which grew up on a farm and wasn´t used to have so much money. She always told that it wasn´t wise to spend so much for things, which in her eyes were unnecessary. However sometimes her father gave her money for expensive clothes behind her mothers back and she went immediately to the mall. One of these days she meet her husband. She was just on her way to her car, pretty busy to eye her new ring she just brought, when a honk threw her out of her happy mood. She looked to the owner the expensive car, which had nothing better to do than to disturb her and showed him her middlefinger. The man behind the wheel hit her back with a nasty word and after that it grew to a hefty argument. The end of it all was that he asked about a date with him. That was two and a half year ago. Now they were married for a half year and were expecting twins in two months. Cindy was thrown out of her thoughts when she heard her stomach growl. Her babies were hungry. Slowly she stood up from her arm chair and got in a standing position. But then she felt dizzy and the room around her began to disappear. The last thing she noticed before she fainted, was a bright light shining in her eyes.

" Honey. Wake up. I´m home".

Cindy opened her eyes and stared at the smiling face of her husband. Confused she looked around her and tried to remember what happened. She was sitting in the arm chair again. Hadn´t she left it to go down into the kitchen? " You´re early".

Jason kneeled in front of his wife. Something was wrong, he could see it in her eyes. Carefully he brushed her light brown hair out of her face. " Is everything alright? Don´t you feel well?".

" It´s nothing", Cindy was scared to tell her husband about her thoughts. He would think she went loco. " How was your day?".

Jason wasn´t so convienced that it was nothing. But he knew that she wouldn´t tell him anything if he pushed her. So he stood up and offered her his hand. " I´ll tell you that later. Now I´m hungry".

Cindy took the help from her husband and together they made their way downstairs. But she couldn´t shake the feeling that something happened with her.

**That evening near Roswell**

Two Teenage boys were sitting on their motorbikes in the middle of the desert. They often meet there to talk or to race against each other. They wore their helmet still on their heads and were prepared to have a race. Like always they made a big show before they began. They pushed their machines to their limits without moving them. The sand under their tires flew around and a huge dustcloud developed from that. Just before they wanted to take the hand from the brake, something brightly flew directly over their heads. Startled they noticed that it was in the process to land somewhere near them. It didn´t look like a airplane or a helicopter. Scared they stepped on the gas and drove back to town.

That night the sheriff department was bombarded with phone calls about aliens landing in the desert.

TBC


	32. Chapter 32

**Thankx jade305 for your feedback. It´s really motivating to get a reaction. Here´s the next part. **

**Chapter 32 The birth of a new Generation**

**Tucson/Arizona Two months later**

Cindy was now panting for good four hours now. The sweat was dripping down her face and in every other place on her body. The cramps in her belly were almost unbearable and she just wanted to get her babies out of her. She didn´t care how, she just wanted it to happen soon or else she would sue this whole building. Her husband Jason was sitting besides her and held her hand or fed her icecubs. He didn´t know what he should do or what his wife wanted him to do. The only thing he could do was to be with her and he hated it. He hated that she was in so much pain and he couldn´t do anything against it. He threatened at least two doctors and four nurses to do something to ease her pain a little. So far no one appeared again and now they were waiting to get the green light for the delivery room.

" I can´t anymore. It´s too much for me", Cindy was on the brink to bite her arm off of her body and beat herself unconsciouness.

Jason brushed her hair from her face and smiled at her. " You have to hang on. You´ll see, before you know it everything will be over".

" You have to do something. I can´t bear this pain any longer", Cindy felt a contraction coming on again. Immediately she began to huff and puff like an idiot. But it didn´t help in any way. She could kill this guy from the prenatal classes who showed them the breathing exercise which should help them through every contractions. Someone should tell him that he should put his advice far up his ass. The prenatal classes was for shit.

Jason grimaced painfully at that. He still held the hand of his wife and she had a strong grip. He couldn´t feel his fingers anymore and he thought he heard a few bones break. Hopefully someone was coming soon and rescued him. " Honey, you´re hurting my hand".

Cindy relaxed again after the pain was gone. That was so far the worst she had to go through. Then she turned to her husband, which examined his hand. He was such a baby. " You think that is painful? When you push something from a size of a watermelon out of a whole from a size of a lemon then you can tell me something about pain. But until then shut your mouth".

" Excuse me? Why you´re attacking me now? I´m here, or not?", Jason couldn´t understand the change in her mood. He was warned that women have mood swings in her pregnancy and he was relieved that his wife didn´t show any signs of that throughout her pregnancy.

" You´re the one who got me pregnant in the first place! I wouldn´t be here if it weren´t because of you!", Cindy knew that it needed two persons to create a baby. And he wasn´t to blame alone. But she was in pain and her sanity flew out the window the moment the first contraction hit her.

Jason looked stunned at his obviously insane wife. Great, now he was the bad guy in this movie. Was it his fault that she was so sexy and he couldn´t keep his hands off of her? No. It was all her fault. However before he could say that, the door to the room burst open and a nurse came in.

" I have good news for you. It´s time for the delivery room".

" About time. I already thought you forgot me", Cindy was relieved that it was finally time for her babies to show themself to the world. She couldn´t wait to hold them in her arms and feed them. She turned to her husband. " Will you be there the whole time?".

Jason was confused again. She was like the girl from the exorcist. At first all sweet and cute and if you turned your head she was this monster. He would never understand women. " Of course Honey".

Cindy smiled at him before the nurse moved her together with the bed out of the room.

**5 hours later**

Jason, his father Bill, his mother Adele and his father in law Charles were standing at the window to the infant ward. Everybody was smiling at the little babies there. Especially the first two to the right up front. Michael and Tess Adams Dupree. They were so adorable. You just wanted to cuddle them all day long.

" They´re really cute, Jason. I can´t wait to spoil them", Adele regarded her grandchildren with so much awe. Finally her son had the family he always wanted.

Jason rolled his eyes. Oh boy his kids would be little brats when they got older. " Please Mum. Don´t do that. We´ll have to live with them".

" Balderdash. We´re the grandparents and we are allowed to spoil them rotten if we want", added Bill. It was a rule that they had to do that. And nobody would stop them. Especially not his son.

Now Charles had something to say. " And before you open your mouth. You can´t do anything to stop us. Clear".

Jason breathed deeply in. What could he say? " Crystal clear".

" I think we should look after Cindy. She must be exhausted", Adele took the arm of her husband and walked with him in the direction of the room of her daughter in law.

Charles took a last look at the tiny little creatures and then followed the other two.

Jason still stayed a little longer. He pressed his hands at the window and observed his children. They were so small and so cute. And they were his. Alright his and Cindy´s. " Don´t worry. They´re not that bad when you know them. Besides your mother and I are always by your side to protect you". A few minutes he kept standing there before he made his way to his wife, too.

After everyone was gone, two men appeared from a room. They positioned themself in front of the window and watched the two babies up front. One of them was looking like a librarian. He was wearing a light brown suit which fit his brown hair and his brown eyes. The other resembled more like a surfer. With his blonde hair and his blue eyes and clothes that looked like a rainbow puked on him. Carefully they eyed them closer.

" Are you sure that they are Ava and Rath?", the surfer asked.

The Librarian turned his head to his companion. Of course he was sure or else he wouldn´t have been here. " Don´t you trust me? I´m absolutely sure".

" It´s not that I don´t trust you, but it is kinda weird to see my best friend as a baby", The blonde guy made a face at the little boy. It was actually funny that he was now older than his former friend.

" It was your idea to do that, Larek. What did you expect? A grown boy shooting out of a human?", the older responded. Sometimes he wondered what he had done wrong to deserve the presence of this bonehead.

Larek faced his partner besides him. " No. And actually it was Mariannas idea not mine. Do you think I would suggest something like that, Nolak?".

" Yes. It´s your way of humour or rather what you call humour", Nolak turned his attention back at the two infants. They didn´t know it yet, but they were part of something big. Sometime in the future they were responsible for the surviving of an entire planet far away from here.

Larek felt insulted. Like he would get the idea to send them on another planet and watch them grow up. " Hey. Marianna always liked my jokes. She laughed about them".

" Yeah, because she had pity with you", Nolak looked at his watch. They had to go before someone noticed them here and asked what they wanted. " We should go".

Larek observed his surroundings. Yeah, the couldn´t risk to be seen. " Then lead the way. I´ll be right behind you".

With that they both walked out of the hospital without beeing seen.

**Roswell New Mexico A month later**

Amy Valenti was just in the process to put her new delivery in the shelfs when the first contraction hit her. She let the box with the alien dolls fall to the floor and braced herself against the wall with both hands. Immediately she tried to breath through the pain like her teacher had told her. Within seconds it was over and she thought it was just a cramp. Relieved she bent down to lift the box from the ground and continued her work. After that she went behind the counter to get the next box. Just as she got there another contraction came. This time it was more painful and she crashed to the floor. Instantly her breath quickened and she tried to think about something nice. But nothing helped at the moment. She made an attempt to get back on her feet to call an ambulance, when she heard the bell over her door ringing. Someone was coming inside.

" Amy, you want believe what just happened", Jim stepped into the shop to tell his wife his good news. But he didn´t see her at her usual place. Confused he looked around. No one was there. " Honey? Where are you?".

" I´m down here Jim. Behind the counter", Amy said through her breathing. Thankfully the contraction went slowly away. It was still painful, but not so bad anymore. Carefully she moved into a sitting position at the wall behind her.

Jim was immediately alarmed and walked quickly to the place she told him. When he got there he saw his wife sitting on the ground. Worried he kneeled besides her. " What is it? Is it the babies?".

" I think it´s time", Amy looked at her husband with a smile. Despite the pain she felt a few moments ago, she was glad that it was finally time to give birth to her children.

Jims face lost his colour for a few seconds before he jumped to his feet. " Oh my god! Do you mean what I mean you mean?".

Amy had to laugh about the paniced state of her husband. She should be the one panicing and not him. " Yeah. The kids are ready to be born".

" We have to get you to the hospital immediately. I have to inform the sheriff and your parents and my parents and everybody else. Oh shit what should we do first?".

Amy shook her head. She hadn´t see him that crazy before. And then the people meant she was a basket case. " Jim slow down. Firstly you have to help me back on my feet. After that we are going to the hospital and then you can inform anybody".

" Right", Jim bent down and pulled his wife up. What was up with him? He didn´t know himself anymore. He was usually so calm about everything. And now he felt like a headless chicken. " Are you alright?".

Amy patted his hand, which was lying on her arm. It was so cute to see him so worried. " Yeah I´m fine".

" Ok. Now we´ll move carefully to the car", Jim put himself behind Amy and held her at her hips. Slowly he guided her out of the shop.

Amy was almost at the car when she remembered that she couldn´t let her shop open. " Wait! My shop. I can´t leave it alone".

Jim didn´t care about that at the moment. He just wanted her to get into the hospital, so that she got the right treatment. But after he saw the expression on her face he gave in. " I´ll take care of it".

After he put her into the car, he ran in the shop again and right in the backroom. There he snatched the keys from the table and stormed back out. Then he closed the door and locked it. After that he jumped into the car. Without saying something he started it and put his move on the gas. With siren and his blue light he speed through the streets of Roswell. People stared shocked after it and a few of them even stopped in their tracks to watch what happened. Amy had to hold onto the handle at the door to keep her from falling from side to side. Her husband was driving like a maniac.

" Jim! Not so fast!".

But he didn´t listened to her. He ignored her screaming and her cursing and kept with his foot on the gas. In record time they both arrived at the hospital. Jim relieved that they finally made it there and Amy relieved that they were still alive. When her husband opened the door for her, the first things she did was smacking him with her hand repeatedly. How dare he to endanger her life and the lifes of his children.

" Amy. Honey. Stop that", Jim lifted his arms to protect himself from the beating. For a pregnant woman she had strength.

Amy wasn´t through with him, but a contraction disturbed her from kicking the ass of her husband. With a painful grimace she bent down and grasped with her right hand the first thing she could find. Unfortunaly she didn´t see what she clutched so strong and Jim screamed of pain really loud.

" Not there. Amy! Let go!", he tried to get her hand from his crotch. She was crushing his nuts together and he still wanted to keep them. Preferable attached to his body.

Amy didn´t noticed anything around her. She just felt this pain, like someone wanted to put her inside out. She tried to remind herself to kill her teacher from Lamaze. Because the things he taught were for shit. They didn´t help and didn´t lessen the pain. Minutes later everything was over again and she breathed deeply in. Slowly she moved into a standing position and turned to Jim. He was a little blue in the face and he seemed to be in pain. How cute, he was sharing their pain together. " You can relax again. It´s over".

Jim pointed at her hand without saying anything. Amy didn´t realize at first what he meant with that. But after she looked where he was pointing at, she immediately released her husband. Guiltily she tried to do damage control. Tenderly she stroked the place she hurt and her hand was instantly knocked away. " Stop that. We don´t have time for that".

Without waiting he half carried his wife into the hospital and snatched the first doctor he could find.

**6 hours later**

Jim and Amy were finally proud parents of a boy, which they called Kyle and a girl, which got the name Maria. The babies were in their eyes the cutest and most beautiful of the world. After they had been weigthed, bathed, clothed and feeded they were brought to the infant ward, to get their check up. Amy was wasted and decided to sleep, while Jim and the proudly grandparents went to the cafetaria to get something to eat or a cup of coffee.

Meanwhile Maria and Kyle Valenti were lying in their temporary sleeping places. Side by side and in the middle of the other babies. All the girls had pink covers and the boys blue covers. And again two men appeared at the window. This time they changed their appearance. Now Nolak looked more like a professor and Larek like his student. They both eyed the girl with interest. Just in that moment she opened her eyes for a second and the men were stunned about the colour. They were the lightest green they ever saw.

" She is the cutest baby ever", Larek made faced at her and winked with his hand. She was so tiny and sweet.

Nolak shook his head. They weren´t here to look after her appearance. She was still a baby and she would change in time. He turned his head to the boy besides her. It was still a mystery to him why Larek choose a woman with twins. " Why didn´t you take a woman with just one baby?".

Larek stopped goofing around and faced his partner. " I didn´t want her to be alone. Rath has Ava and Vilandra has Zan. I just found it fair to give her a sibling, too".

" But he is still human, isn´t he?", they couldn´t make a mistake. It was risky enough as it is. But to inject alien DNA in someone that had no purpose would be bad.

" Of course. I was careful to inject only the girl and not the boy", did Nolak think he was an amateur? Larek had been cautioness and he was satisfied with the outcome so far. He didn´t know if they would remember their past life, but he knew that they possessed the powers they had there. Only time would tell them if their everything went as they planned. Until then they had to wait.

Nolak brought his attention on the girl again. She would be the leader of this little group someday like in her past life. She alone would have the power to change something this time. And maybe the outcome would be different then. But that was all in the future. " We should take off".

Larek didn´t want to go. He still wanted to watch after Marianna or like she was called now, Maria. It seemed like she remembered him, because she opened her eyes in that moment he looked at her. Maybe this time everything would be different and she would fall in love with him. Larek put that thought out of his head immediately. She and Rath were meant to be and that wouldn´t change in this life and probably in another, too. " Ok. Let´s go".

And like the last time they walked calmy out of the hospital.

**Santa Fe another three months later**

Diane Evans and her husband were relaxing in their garden. She was sitting with her extrem round belly on a stable rocking chair, which Philip had cushioned with many pillows, so that she was comfortable. He himself was happy in his plain wooden chair with something cold to drink in front of him and his wife healthy besides him. It was Sunday and usually they drove around with their car to watch the nature or just to enjoy the time alone without disturbance through telephone or someone just dropping by. But since Diane was ready to give birth anytime soon they decided to stay at home, pulled the telephone cable from the socket and made themself comfortable on their porch. It was almost evening and it got slowly colder when Diane noticed a light strain in her back. But it was fast gone, so that she thought it was nothing to worry about.

" Everything alright?", Philip detected that something was happening. His wife made a weird face and usually that meant something was going on.

Diane turned to her husband. " It´s nothing. I just got a little strain in my back. But it´s gone now".

Philip wasn´t so sure that it was nothing. But he was a worryward and everything scared him. Especially now that his wife was pregnant. " Are you sure?".

" Absolutely. I just have to go to the toilet", Diane stood up with difficulties. One hand was supporting her body and the other was laying on her belly. She hoped that everything would be over soon. She missed standing up without needing a car jack. Suddenly something snapped and water was dripping down her legs. Startled she looked down and saw a puddle building at her feets. " Philip. My water broke".

Philip jumped from his chair so fast that he knocked it over in the process. After that he went to his wife and supported her. " Are you feeling any pain?".

" No. A little nauseou, but nothing unusual", Diane was used to feeling sick twenty four hours.

Carefully Philip brought her to the car, which was thankfully parking in front of the house instead of standing in the garage like it normally did. When he placed her inside and was sure that she was comfortable, he ran back into the house and got the suitcase they prepared weeks ago. Then he dashed out, threw the suitcase into the trunk and jumped in the car. With squeaking tires they raced in the direction of the hospital. Thank god that it was Sunday and it weren´t too much other cars on the road, because Philip drove like a race driver. He oversaw every red traffic light, he didn´t abide to the traffic rules and run over at least three stop signs. Diane had to do everything to keep her food inside. If he wasn´t more careful she would puke right in this car and she wouldn´t even regret it. She was glad that she wasn´t in pain at the moment and she wanted to keep it that way. When they finally arrived at the hospital, Philip parked his car right in the front of it and drove over a sign that said " No Parking". Quickly he got out and stormed through the doors.

" I need help. My wife is pregnant and her water just broke".

Immediately a doctor came to him. " Where´s your wife?".

Philip looked besides him. There wasn´t anyone, except a man with his hand in a bandage. Oh shit, he forgot his wife in the car. " Dammit. She´s still outside".

" Not anymore. Thanks for helping me", Diane was calmly walking through the hospital sliding doors with a pissed off expression on her face. How could he forget her? He would hear of this when they were home again.

Philip went to her and put his arms around her to support her. " I´m sorry. I´m a little disarranged".

" A little?", Diane didn´t want to know when he was totally disarranged. He would have probably forgot her at home and drove alone to the hospital. There he would finally noticed that someone was missing.

Philip didn´t have time to retort something to that, because in that moment the doctor brought a wheel chair and placed Diane in it. He was in the process to follow his wife, when a nurse grasped his arm.

" Excuse me. You have to fill in a form".

Philip watched his wife disappear from his sight. He didn´t want stay here, he wanted to be there for her. He would probably miss everything. But as a lawer he knew how important the paperwork were. So without making a big fuss he took the form from the nurse and started to fill it out.

**7 hours later**

Diane was lying in her bed. She looked exhausted and her face resembled an exploded tomato. But she was relieved that everything was over. Her babies were healthy and absolute perfect. They had ten toes and ten fingers and cute little noses. Philip was in tears when he laid eyes on his children for the first time. He was so happy that everyhing went smoothly. Now he was making a few phone calls to let their parents known that they were grandparents. Diane closed her eyes and slept a little. She was more wasted than she thought. While she went to the dreamland, two men dressed in hospital clothes stepped into the room. Both seemed to be jumpy and nervous. Slowly they walked to the little crib that was standing at the window. There were laying two babies. Like it was standing on their bracelett, their names were Maxwell and Isabel Evans. Nolak bent down to them.

" Now the plan is completed. The first part is done and now all we can do is wait".

Larek watched the babies with amusement. All his friends were so tiny. He felt like a father that looked at his children. Oh boy, when they grew up, he was much older than them. At least according to the years. Their human suits didn´t age like it normally did. They would always look like now. A wonderful invention from him. On the outside they looked like any human person, but in the inside they were one hundred percent alien. " And what do you think we do now?".

" I thought we would start a life here. We live like everybody else and keep an eye on our fosterlings", Nolak already had something planned for himself. He would look for an job and an apartement soon. But of course always near the others.

Lareks eyes almost popped out of his face. " Do you mean I have to look for a job?".

" Yeah. That´s what the people do here. They work and earn money to pay for their bills", Nolak wasn´t so surprised that Larek didn´t learn anything since they came here. He on the other hand studied his enviroment and tried to memorize it.

Larek grimaced at that. Great, now he had look for a job that was under his standard. He would bore himself to death, that was for sure. This planet was so far away from the technology on Antar. Before he could object his doubts, they were disturbed.

" What are you doing? Is something wrong?", obviously the mother of the twins woke up. Great more problems.

Nolak turned to her and put his serious face on. " Don´t worry Ma´am. We just looked after them. They´re fine".

" Is my husband back again?".

Now Larek stepped closer. " No. But we can let him now you´re looking for him".

" That would be great. Thank you", Diane had a strange feeling about the men. They didn´t seem like doctors. And why did they talk so weird, like they weren´t from here?

Nolak and Larek smiled at the woman and then made a hasty retreat. The moment they stepped out of the corridor they lost their hospital clothes and almost ran out of the building. That was a close call. If they weren´t more careful their disguise would blow off. When they arrived outside they stopped near the parking lot and breathed deeply in.

" That was close", Larek tried to get his beating heart under control. If he had to live here now he made a promise to get in better shape.

Nolak surveyed the surrounding and watched if anybody noticed something weird about them. Thankfully nobody was near them. " Yeah. Too close".

" Do you think she noticed something?", Larek could read her expression and it seemed like she detected that something wasn´t right.

Nolak shook his head. She was just human and not so advanced like them. " No. But from now on we have to be more careful. Therefore I think we should go seperate ways".

" And how do we stay in contact?", Larek like the idea. But what should they do when something went wrong? They weren´t on Antar and could speak with each other through the communicator they had there.

Nolak pulled two little square things out of his jacket pocket and gave him one of them. " That are mini communicators. One of the scientist gave it to me, in case we would lose each other".

Larek stared at his new toy in awe. Great, something to play with. But after he saw the stern expression of his partner, he put it immediately in his pocket of his jeans. " Alright. That means goodbye then".

" Don´t get all teary with me. Be careful and see you", with that Nolak just walked away.

Larek watched after his retreating back for a while. So now here he was, on a strange planet, alone without family and friends. Slowly a smile broke out on his face. Let´s see what this planet had to offer for a great man like him.

TBC


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33 A step into the right direction**

**Tucson Arizona 18 years later**

Michael Dupree, a young men that looked like he came from a cover of GQ magazine, with spikey dark hair and chocolate brown eyes, a body like a greek god and a smile that made girls fall to her knees, was saying goodbye to all the attendants in the mansion. Starting with the cooks, the maids and the remaining personal, which made his life a little easier. He would miss them. They were like family to him since his parents died in an accident when he and his twin sister were just 8 years old. Althrough their grandfather Charles took them under his wings, he was always working and had not so much time for them. Not that he was bitter because of that, but he wished his grandfather would have taken more time to do something with them. Thankfully he was extremly rich and the mansion was full of people working for them. Michael was never alone and there were always someone around he could bother or talk to. Now he would leave all that behind to go into college in Las Cruces. The attendants already packed his things and these of his sister in his new car. A brandnew Dodge Dakota in his favourite colour, black. Like every male he loved his wheels more than anything.

" What is taking you so long?", Tess appeared at the door to the common room. If they wouldn´t have been born at the exact day, nobody would know that they were twins. She was looking like a cute doll with her blonde curly hair and her blue eyes. She was petite and small, in contrast to Michael. He was great built and tall.

Michael repressed his feeling to snap at her. " I was just saying goodbye to everyone".

" Great. I have done that already this morning. Why do you always do everything last minute?", Tess had been excited the whole day and wanted to move. She was glad to finally go into college and meet new people. Althrough she liked the people in Tucson, she wanted to get to know other people, who didn´t know them or saw them growing up.

Michael turned to Tess and asked himself for the upteenth time why he was punished with her as a sister. She was a real pain in the ass. Not that he didn´t love her, but she could be really annoying. Hopefully she would be living on another end of the campus. " Because I´m not like you in case you haven´t noticed. Now let´s get going".

Tess waited until her brother walked past her, before she stretched her tongue out and made a face at him. Sometimes he was a real kill joy and other times he seemed to have no funny bone in his body. But maybe he was just so when she was near. Because all the ladies loved him and his charme. Tess shook her head and trailed after Michael.

The first thing that leaped to their eyes when they stepped one foot out the door was the huge white limousine on their driveway. That meant usually one thing. Their grandfather was home. Slowly they both walked to the limo and waited nervously until someone opened the door for him so that he could get out. Sanchez, the driver of this vehicle, jumped out of his seat and sprinted the whole way to the back and with a graceful movement opened the door. Charles, an older man with black hair, grey temples and blue-grey eyes, stepped out with his expensive shoes and the designer suit.

" Hey grandpa. I thought you had a meeting today", Tess was glad he was here, but it was still strange that he cancelled his meeting because of them. He never had done that in the past.

Charles smiled at his grandchildren. " I didn´t want to miss your departure. And the meeting was cancelled".

" I should have known that you wouldn´t miss your meeting because of us", Michael snapped bitterly. He just wanted to hear for once that they were important to his grandfather and that he regretted all the time he missed with them. But no, it was all about business.

" Michael! Stop it. Not now", Tess hated it when her brother and her grandfather got into an argument. Especially today. They would go away and she didn´t want that they would part on bad terms.

Charles turned to Michael. They both were so stubborn that they crashed always together. The boy took exactly after him. " Michael, you know why I worked so hard. I wanted to give you everything you needed. And I didn´t hear you complaining when you got your new car".

" Yeah. Whatever", Michael turned back and went without a further word into the dodge. There he waited until Tess got in.

Tess faced her grandfather with an apologetic expression. " You know he doesn´t mean that. He´s just.. Michael".

" I know that. Don´t worry. I look at him and I see myself in his age", Charles couldn´t be mad at his grandson, even if he wanted. He wasn´t different in this stage of his life. He was reckless and rebellious. More than once he stood up against his father and told him where he could put his advices. And more than once he was punished with house arrest or chore or even fixing something in the house.

Tess was happy that they wouldn´t leave with a fight. A little sad she huged her grandpa. " I´ll miss you. And I´m grateful for all the things you have done for us. I love you".

Charles squeezed her tightly and even kissed her on the forehead. " I love you, too. The both of you. Even if Michael doesn´t want to acknowledge it".

" He knows it", Tess parted from her grandfather and looked for the last time at the mansion before she winked and walked quickly to the car. She didn´t want Michael to be mad at her for letting him wait too long.

Charles stood at the driveway and winked after his grandchildren until the car disappeared from his sight. After that he made his way into the mansion, that would so quite without them now.

**Santa Fe the same time**

Max Evans, a young man of the age of 18 with hair so dark that it almost was black and brown eyes that would bring girls to melt at his feet, the fitting body to that, was sitting on the couch in the living room. He was ready packed and all his luggage was already tucked into his old army jeep. Now the only thing he had to to was waiting for his twin sister to appear. She was always late, because she thought it was fashionable to be late. Bored he turned on the tv and watched a scientific programm. Every once in a while he checked his watch. They would be the last to arrive if they wouldn´t go in the next few minutes. " Isabel! Get your butt in gear and move him downstairs!".

Suddenly his sister stepped into the living room. She was the complete opposite from Max. Her hair was long and dark blonde. She was a little taller than her brother. The only thing they had in common were the brown eyes. And she had this aura of a little princess, althrough she wasn´t like that, at least to her true friends. " Why are you yelling? I´m here".

" Took you long enough. We have to go or we will be late", Max jumped to his feet and looked horrofied at the many bags standing at Isabels feet. " I hope you don´t want to take this all with you".

Isabel glanced at her brother like he spoke another language. " Of course I take this all with me or do you think I just put them there for fun?", sometimes she understood why Max was still single. He had absolute no knowledge about women.

" Why do you need four suitcases?", Max had just one and everything he needed was in there. They didn´t emigrate into another country forever, they just went to college for four years and it was just 1 ½ hours from their home.

Isabel glared at him. Everytime they went away it was the same. She was a girl and she would need the correct clothes for every occasion. And she wanted to be prepared for everything. You didn´t know what happened. She wasn´t like her brother, who wore the same pants a whole week and just changed the shirt occasionally. " This one", she pointed at the biggest suitcase. " is for the casual clothes", after that she pointed at the normal sized suitcase. " This one is for the dresses and skirts", then she pointed at the middle sized suitcase. " That one has my shoes", now she pointed at the last and smallest suitcase. " And that one is just Make up".

" You´re mental, you know that? Why didn´t you just take your whole closet with you. It would have saved you time to pack", Max didn´t understand girls. Especially not his own sister. Why was she so anal about her appearance. She was beautiful without the make up and the expensive clothes.

Isabel smiled at that. The idea crossed her mind, but she thought it was just too crazy. " If your car would have been bigger, I would have done it".

Max shook his head and groaned loud. His sister would be the death of him someday. Hopefully not every girl was like her in Las Cruces or he would lose his mind for sure. " We should finally go".

Immediately Isabel took the beautycase and the middle sized suitcase. " What are you waiting then. Let´s move it". Without waiting she marched in the direction of the front door.

" Hey, you forgot something", Max knew it. Now it was his assignment to carry the heavy stuff to the car. With a curse he took the remaining suitcases and followed his sister outside.

Once they arrived at the jeep, they meet their parents there. Diane was wiping her eyes with a little white handkerchief, while Philip tried to comfort her. He was proud of his children. Althrough he had wished they both would have attended to Harvard or Yale like himself and his wife. But unfortunately they wanted to go to the New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. And who was he to judge their decision.

" So, is everything set?".

Max heaved one of the suitcases in the back of his jeep. " Almost. I have just to get Isabels stuff in the car and then we are ready to go".

Isabel was meanwhile putting her other suitcase behind her seat. The beautycase had to stay with her, because there wasn´t a place she could put it. Why did her brother just love this jalopy? He could have had a nicer car with a bigger trunk. But no he saw this old rust bucket and fell in love instantly.

" Do you have enough money? Do you have both your cellphone with you?", Diane wanted to stall more. It was hard for her to see her children leave the house, even if it was just for a few years and they were still near them. But now they would live their own lifes without them and it was painful to let them go. Not after she had them for the last 18 years.

" Mom. You worry too much. We have everything we need", Isabel walked to her mother and gave her a tight hug. It was even hard for her to leave the people she knew and the surroundings she grew up in. But now it was time for her to experience something new and different.

Max snorted at that. He was finally done storing everything into his jeep. " Yeah. Isabel has even more than she needs actually".

Isabel turned around to him and threw him a nasty glance. When would he stop with that? He was behaving like a baby. " Would you shut up already?".

" Nope. It´s too much fun to annoy you", Max stepped to his father and embraced him shortly. Then he went to his mother and huged her warmly. After that he got in the car.

Isabel rolled her eyes. She said goodbye to her father and kissed him on his cheek before she got in the jeep herself. One last time they saw to their parents and with a wink they both drove away.

**Roswell a while later**

Maria Valenti, a young 18 year old girl with long blonde hair and light green eyes, long slender legs many women would kill for and a petite figure, stood in her room that was her housing her whole life. She wanted to enjoy the last moments in here. Althrough most of her things would remain here, she wouldn´t see it for a long time. It would be strange to leave this all behind and sleep in another bed or smell a different scent. But it was time for her to go now. She was old enough and her parents wanted her to go. Actually she was excited and scared together to start a new life without her parents and her home.

" Hey sis, we´re leaving or what", ok, she wasn´t alone. She still had her twin brother Kyle with her. Except that he was a boy, they were looking alike. He had the same hair colour, but instead of green eyes his were blue. And he was thoroughly fit. No wonder, because he was jock extraordinary. He made every sport that was showing on tv.

Slowly she turned around and sent him a glare. He was a real pain in the ass most of the time. " Don´t get your boxers in a twist. I´m coming".

" Halleluja", Kyle threw his arms in the air and then he shouldered his backpack.

Maria took her own backpack, thankfully her other luggage were already in the car outside and all she had to carry now was the smaller stuff and followed her brother down the stairs.

When they came to the door, they saw their parents and their youngest sister Lindsey standing there. Their father Jim was smiling proudly at them, their mother Amy was crying soundlessly behind her hands and their sister was grinning from ear to ear. Probably because she was now the only child in this house. It would still take four more years before she went off to college herself.

" Do you have everything?", Jim wanted to be sure that they had everything with them. He knew his kids and they would forget their heads if they wouldn´t be rooted on their throats.

Kyle nodded while Maria checked again her backpack. But after a few minutes she also nodded. They had everything they would need and now it was time to say goodbye to their parents.

Maria was the first who stepped forward and gave her father a big hug. Then she turned to her mother, who was now starting to sob loudly. " Mom. Don´t cry. I´m not going into a war. It´s just college in Las Cruces. It´s not even an hour away from here".

" I know that. But you´re my baby. You´re slowly growing up and starting you´re own life", Amy knew that she was talking crazy. But it felt like it was just yesterday that Maria began walking or went to her first date. Now she was moving into another town to attend to college. It would get really quite in this house.

Maria embraced her mother tightly. It was hard for her, too. She was used to have her family around her and now the only contact she had with them was via phone. But it was finally time to spread her wings and try to fly alone. " I will call every evening. And I´ll be back every holiday. I promise".

" You better or I will personally come to your college and embarrasse you in front of your fellow students", althrough Amy was sad, she had to smile at the picture. And she would really do it if she had to. Usually she was rather a cool mom, but if she had she could be cruel.

Maria released her mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek, before she turned her attention to her baby sister. With a smile she bent down to Lindseys smaller frame and looked her in the eyes. " I don´t want to hear complaints about you, young lady or I will tell Kyle everytime you have date and you know what happenes then".

Lindsey swallowed obvious. She knew exactly what would happen. He would be present the whole evening and keep an eye on them. The worst scenerio, Kyle would threaten the poor boy until he would disappear. " Don´t worry. I´ll be good".

" That´s what I wanted to hear. Now give me a hug", Maria threw her arms around her sister and pressed her tightly at her body. The next time they would see each other again, Lindsey had probably changed drastically and she wouldn´t be here to see her off on her first date.

Suddenly a noise disturbed the emotional moment. A car horn honked pretty loud and with the melody of star wars. That could only mean Alex was here with his geek mobile. Well actually it was a really old vw golf with more rust than painting. Originally it was dark blue, but at the moment it looked more a light brown. But Alex loved that car more than anything.

Kyle opened the door immediately and they saw a lanky boy with dark brown hairs and blue eyes walking with skipping steps in their direction. An excited smile was gracing his face and he couldn´t keep his body still. " Hey Valentis. Are you ready for college?".

" Hey man, I was born ready", Kyle and Alex exchanged their greetings with many hand movement and a manly chest bumper at the end. Maria rolled her eyes at them. She would never understand why they couldn´t just hug each other or shake hands like normal people.

Maria pushed her brother out of her way and gave her friend a warm hug. " Hey. Where did you leave Liz actually?".

Alex released her and pointed behind him at his car. " She´s still in there. I think she´s close to hyperventilate".

" Then we should finally go", Kyle gave everyone a short hug before he made his way to his red camaro convertible. A strange contrast to Alex lousy vehicle. Because it was almost new and twinkled like a diamond. Kyle´s whole pride.

Maria said just goodbye and followed her brother, while the rest of her family stood at the door and winked after them. Alex walked calmly back to his own car and got in.

The last thing Amy, Jim and Lindsey could hear, was a fight between Maria and Kyle about which music they would hear on their one hour drive. Kyle wanted to listen to Rap while Maria wanted Metallica. Unfortunately they couldn´t hear the end of the fight, because the drove off into their new life.

**Campus Las Cruces New Mexico State University**

Almost simultanously the eight people arrived at the campus of their new home for the next years. Nobody of them knew what still layed ahead of them and what challenges they had to face. And what people they would meet or meet again.

TBC


	34. Chapter 34

**Thankx to Jadefire305 and RedJewel2662 for their nice feedback. I´m really glad you like my story. **

**Chapter 34 New acquaintances**

The campus was crowded with students and those who wanted to be students here. The newcomer were easily to make out, because they looked around and searched for the place they were supposed to be at the moment. Maria and Liz were just coming from the regristration, where they got their student card, their schedule and were told which house they would be living. Now they were looking for the mentioned house. But it wasn´t easy, because the campus was huge and nobody stopped to help them.

" Do you think we´re even in the right direction?", Liz was worried that they would never find their house. She felt like an animal trapped in a labyrinth. No matter which way they would take, they would never find the exit.

Maria looked at the map she got from the nice lady at the registration. But she couldn´t even figure out where they were now and to know which way they should take to get to their destination was harder to read. " I think you should take a look at the map".

Liz took the map from her friend and eyed it. No wonder that Maria couldn´t read a thing on this, she held it wrong the whole time. Without trying to laugh, Liz turned it around and tried to find the spot where they stood at the moment. Her brown eyes travelled over the piece of paper and here and there she brushed her long brown hair behind her ear. Suddenly she looked up and around. " Ha. I found it".

" Thank god! I already thought we have to sleep outdoors tonight", Maria followed her friend which was heading fast forward. She had slight problems keeping up with her, because there were too many people walking around.

And then it happened. She lost Liz in the crowd while she was busy with checking out a few of the boys standing at the side and eyeing her. Slightly paniced she scanned the place for a brown haired head or a person with a backpack in the form of a teddybear. But there were just too many people. Just as she decided to just follow the path she walked before and turned around to start walking, she collied with another body. Startled she lost her balance and fell to the ground. Great, she was not even here for an hour and she already behaved like a klutz.

" Is everything alright?", a good looking boy was looking down on her with a shy smile. Slowly he offered her his hand to help her stand up.

A little embarressed she took his hand and arose from the ground. Immediately she wiped the dirt from her jeans, while she tried to act like nothing happened. " Yeah, nothing hurt. Except my pride".

" I´m sorry. I didn´t see you. I´m new here and I was looking for my house when you walked into me", the boy wasn´t so sorry about the collision at all. He checked Maria out and wasn´t disappointed about her appearance. She was exactly the type of women he tried to get into his bed. She was small, petite and blonde.

Maria finally raised her head and eyed the wall she walked into. He was a real eye catcher with his million dollar smile, his spikey hair and the mischievous twinkle in his chocolate brown eyes. The body seemed to be not so bad either, at least as much as she could see from his black designer shirt he wore. " It´s okay. I wasn´t looking where I was going actually. I´m also looking for my house and I lost my friend somewhere in this crowd".

The boy regarded her closely. He had the feeling he knew her from somewhere. But how could he forget such a beauty? He would remember her for sure, especially with her green eyes that were so light like he never saw it at anybody else. " You´re kinda familiar. Have we meet before?".

" I don´t think so", althrough Maria had the feeling to know him, too. It was something in her inside telling her, he wasn´t so foreign to her. Like she would meet an old friend she didn´t see for a long time.

The boy noticed that she wasn´t so sure herself. Maybe they meet at a party or something. " I´m Michael by the way", he stretched his hand out.

Maria took it immediately. " Maria".

" Maria. The name is just as beautiful as you", Michael put on his most charming smile. It wasn´t so bad to be here actually. Not even an hour and he had a new conquest. He just had to see what was still laying ahead of him, when he was here longer.

Maria contained her reflex to roll her eyes. Damn she let his nice appearance fool her. He was just like every other male. Great another guy who thought he was a gift for all women. She should have known better. " You´re wasting no time, aren´t you?".

Michael lifted his eyebrow and smirked cockily. " No. Not with such gorgeous women like you".

" I wonder how many of this gorgeous women heard the same line before me", Maria wanted to go asap. She was so sick of this guys, who were just nice to you until they had what they wanted and then they dropped you like a hot potatoe. She would never fall into these traps again. She burned her hands too many times on this kind of men.

Michael acted shocked and put his hand on his heart. " Now you´re hurting my feelings. I´m not just trying to charm you into my bed. Besides I don´t even know where my bed is standing at the moment".

Maria just wanted to tell him if he even possessed feelings, when Liz came from the crowd and grasped her arm. " Thank god that I found you. What are you still doing here?".

" I lost you in all this jumble. And then I ran into him", Maria pointed at Michael. She was glad that her friend was here and would give her an excuse to go.

Liz finally realized that they weren´t alone and eyed the tall guy besides her friend. He was hot. Immediately she started to blush when he looked at her.

" Hey. I´m Michael", this time he didn´t shake hands, but he winked with his hand. She wasn´t someone he would nail. She was too boring for his taste. Contrary to her friend Maria. That was another case.

Liz turned a darker shade of red. Why was she always so shy around hot guys? " Liz".

" Great. Now that the introduction is over, we can finally find our rooms", Maria had no real desire to stay here any longer. Besides she wanted to put her things away and rest a little.

Michael put on his smirk for the last time. " We´ll be seeing each other", with a hinted salute he disappeared.

" Great. I can´t wait", Maria replied sarcastically when she made her way to her house with Liz.

The whole way, her friend pestered her with all kind of question about Michael and how hot he was. She was gushing over his appearance and the clothes which was clinging to his body really nicely. And his charming smile that made her inside flutter. Then she started to tease Maria that he obviously had casted an eye on her, which she denied of course. He was just after one thing and that was getting her naked and into his bed. It was nothing more than lust. And Maria knew that she wouldn´t fall for this number again. Not after her shitty relationship with Billy. He was also from this kind of man who promised you everything as long as he´s courting you. But after he´s sure that he has you bagged, he changes. But you don´t realize it at first, you finally noticed it when you´re so in love with him that you can´t image ever breaking up with him. Actually she should have noticed it earlier, because everybody was telling her that Billy didn´t fit to her. She was popular, intelligent and nice. He was a musician with no desire to make something out of his life. And yet she loved him. When she got her accepting letter from the university he fought with her. He threatened to break up when she would attend to college. This time she didn´t let herself forcing into something that he wanted. This time she did what she wanted. Billy didn´t actually know that she was here, but he would know it as soon as he tried to phone her at home. At this thought a smile appeared on her face. How much she would love to see his face when he realized that she went against him.

" Are you even listening to me?", Liz seemed to have registered that her friend was in her own little world.

Maria shook her head and turned to her friend. " I´m sorry. Did you say something?".

" No. I was just talking to strangers", Liz rolled her eyes at her friend. What did Maria think she was doing the whole time? Talking to herself? But after the far away look she had obviously talked to herself. " Where were you with your thoughts? Has it something to do with Michael?".

Maria felt how a slight blush crept up her neck at the mention of the name. Alright, she had to admit, he was an absolute hottie. But everybody with eyes would see that. It was just his pick up line that bothered her. " No. I was actually just thinking about Billy. I´m curious what he´ll do when he becomes aware that I went behind his back and did what he didn´t want me to do".

Liz groaned loud. What did her friend see in Billy? He was rude, had no ambition to make more out of his life, he treated Maria like an object and he didn´t even look that great. She and probably every citizen of Roswell didn´t understand why Maria dated him so long actually. They were the complete opposite and didn´t match. " You should forget about him. I mean you´re still young and there are better guys around here. You did the right thing by breaking up with him".

" You´re right. I shouldn´t worry about him", Maria knew that her friends and her family weren´t so keen on Billy. They told her time and time again that she would find someone better. And now she had the chance to start new.

" Hey, here is my room", Liz stopped in front of a door with the number 89. Sadly she turned to Maria. " I´m disappointed that we can´t share a room together".

Maria huged her friend warmly. Yeah she thought so, too. " Don´t worry, I´m just a few doors down the hall. Besides we can meet new people and maybe find new friends in the process".

Liz breathed deeply out before she released Maria. Let´s see what kind of roommate she got. " Wish me luck".

" Luck", Maria gave her two thumps up and then continued her way to her room. Nervously she took her time to walk there. She was dreading what she would find behind it. What kind of person her roommate was, if they would get along or if they would try to scratch each others eyes out.

When she finally came to her room, she opened the door with sweating hands and a fast beating heart. Slowly she stepped in and looked around. She seemed to be the first one to arrive here, because there wasn´t anybody in sight. Carefully she eyed the room properly. There were two small beds, which were seperated through a little table on which a phone was standing. At each side were big bureaus standing. Besides them seemed to be the closets for their clothes. Near the door was a sink and at the other side was a desk with two chairs. Maria was impressed with the furnishing. In a few days when she positioned all her things, she would feel really homey here.

" Hey, you have to be my roommate", rang a female voice behind her.

Startled Maria turned around and came face to face with a cute looking girl. She was just as tall as her, with blonde curly hair and pretty blue eyes. Her friendly smiling face seemed to be flawless. " Then you have to be mine".

" Yeah. Are you so excited about college, too?", the girl was extremely hyper and couldn´t stand still for a few seconds. But despite her expression of a cheeleader on exctasy, she seemed to be a nice girl.

Maria felt like she was still in Highschool and they were on a trip with the class, where she had to share her room with one of the airheads called cheerleader. " Are you always so... psyched up?".

The girl didn´t lose her smile and it slowly scared her. " No, it´s just the excitement of experiencing something new and be away from home".

Maria nodded her head in understanding. She knew that feeling, but she didn´t show it so openly. Actually she didn´t show her emotions ever, except for joy and absolute hate. But other than that nobody knew what was going inside her head.

" Oh god, where are my manners? My name is Tess Dupree", the girl stepped closer to her and stretched her hand out.

" I´m Maria Valenti", she took the offered hand and shook it. The moment their skins came in contact a little spark flew from their hands. Immediately they both pulled back.

Tess eyed her hand surprised. That had never happened before. She had got a tiny electric shock when she touched someone, sure, but she never had sparks flying. She looked up at Maria and noticed that she was as surprised as herself. For the first time she detected her eyes and the more she saw into them the more she thought she had seen them before. Suddenly the moment was broken through the ringing of something. Instantly Maria took her cellphone out of her little handbag and pushed a few buttons.

" Boyfriend?", Tess asked nosily. She wasn´t so curious actually, but she wanted to keep the conversation going. Something said her that Maria wasn´t so different than her.

Maria drew her attention from her cellphone. " No worse. Brother".

" Cool. I´m also here with my brother", Tess was glad that she found a topic. Maybe she could find out something about her while they talked.

Maria put her cellphone back in her handbag. " Let´s see how cool you still find it when you want to date a nice boy and you´re brother interfere´s the whole time".

Tess laughed about that. She had enough experience in that case than she liked. Her brother was a worryward and tried to protect her from harm. Sometimes it was cute and sometimes she could kill him. " You´re telling me. He´s treating me like a little child, althrough we´re the same age".

" I can relate to that. So you´re a twin, too?".

" Yeah. And obviously you, too", Tess liked Maria the more time she spent with her. They would perfectly get along. At least as long as they could rant about their overprotective brothers, which could take time. Maybe a few years or so.

Maria smiled for the first time wholeheartly. She liked Tess. " Yeah. Maybe we should exchange our best stories"

**Other side of the campus**

Kyle finally found his room after he walked around the whole campus. Boy was the place huge and the map was for shit. He wondered for the first time why he hadn´t joined the boyscouts when he was younger, at least there he would have learned to read a map. But no, he decided to join the junior baseball league. Hopefully Maria didn´t have the same problems, althrough she would have more chances at getting an answer when she asked someone after the way. Alright, he would have gotten an answer, when his stupid pride would have let him ask. However that didn´t matter now, he found his room without help. And he was stunned how big and cozy it appeared. He would definitely feel like home here the next years. Wasted he took his backpack from his shoulders and threw it at the bed on the right side. After that he followed and crashed headfirst on the mattress. She was as comfortable as she looked and Kyle moaned outloud.

" If I should leave you alone with the mattress, I can find another room".

Kyle didn´t hear someone coming in the room. Surprised he turned his head around and eyed the newcomer. " No it´s ok. I don´t have anything against bystander".

" Cool", the guy let a big black sports bag fall to his feet and surveyed the set up. " Not so bad actually".

Kyle rolled around and sat up finally. It wasn´t polite to turn your back on people. " That was my first thought, too".

" I think we should introduce each other. My name is Michael Dupree".

Kyle´s eyes widened at that name. Oh my god? " Are you related to Charles Dupree the multimillionaire?".

Michael sighed irritated. Why was always the first question if he was related to Charles when he mentioned his last name? He was so sick of this shit. " Yeah. He´s my grandfather".

Immediately Kyle jumped to his feet and shook Michaels hand. " Kyle Valenti. It´s nice to meet you".

" Yeah", he wasn´t so comfortable with that reaction. He hated that people would act like they liked him, only because he was the grandchild of Charles Dupress. All those shallow mens, who were just after the money or the reputation. Great of all the roommates he could have gotten, he had one that was someone like that.

" Is it true that your grandfather knows Hugh Heffner and is sometimes in his mansion?", Kyle didn´t have any interest in the money. But if Michael had connections to the playboy bunnies, he would use this to his advantage.

Michael was taken aback from the question. Slowly he got the message and a smile broke out on his face. Kyle wasn´t after the money or the reputation. He was just a guy like him. " Yes he knows Hugh, but he wasn´t in his mansion ever. Too bad actually. I would have liked to meet his girls".

" Damn! And I thought you would be my next best friend", Kyle was just joking and he hoped that it get across like that. He didn´t want to make an enemy right away, especially when he had to share a room with him.

Michael laughed. He liked Kyle´s humour. They both would definitely have so much fun together. " Hey, who needs this fake babes when there are so much better girls around here".

" I didn´t see any hot chicks here. But that could be because I was too busy looking for my way around this campus", Kyle shrugged with his shoulders. He had still enough time to check all this hot babes out.

Michael smirked while he rubbed his hands together. " Then you have missed something. I made first contact with a girl that was so hot that I almost burned my hands on her. Actually she bumped into me and man was I glad that she did".

Kyle got interested and sat closer at the edge of the mattress. He liked Michael better and better. He was exactly the type of guy he hung out with in Highschool. " And what did she look like?".

" She was blonde, not so tall, a tight body, green eyes and full red lips that were begging for attention. I tell you, she was so sexy that I almost came into my pants without touching her", Michael still had her picture in front of his eyes. He would never forget her beautiful face and her body that was screaming his name.

Kyle could imagine the person exactly and he liked what he saw. He was already hard from the thought. Oh boy, he needed to get laid and that as soon as possible. But that didn´t seem to be a big problem here and with Michael at his side they would cause much damage together. " Don´t say anything anymore. My pants are getting too small".

Michael finally swooped one of the office chairs and sat on it the wrong way around. " Then you can imagine how I felt".

Kyle wanted to retort something when his eyes landed on something shiney in Michaels jeans pocket. It looked like a cellphone. Suddenly he remembered what he forgot. " Excuse me for a moment", quickly he grapped his backpack and opened it. Then he took his cellphone out of it and pushed a few buttons.

" Don´t tell me you´re texting your girlfriend something dirty?".

Kyle hit the last button and sent off the message. Quickly he put his cellphone back into his backpack and faced his new friend. " No. I was just telling my sister which room I´m in".

" Is she attenting here, too?", Michael wouldn´t have anything against a hottie walking in and out of this room from time to time.

Kyle raised his eyebrow at that and his alarm went off. Hopefully Michael wasn´t someone that was after every skirt he saw. Because then they would have a problem. Maria was off limits for his roommate and he would do anything to protect his sister from heartache. " Yeah".

Michael immediately picked up the tension in this one word. He didn´t know why he could do it, but he had the gift to read other peoples emotion either through the body language or sometimes when the feelings were pretty strong, he could sense them. This time he read the message loud and clear. Don´t even think about going after my sister. " So. I think we should finally begin to put our things away".

" That´s a good idea", Kyle was relieved that Michael understood his meaning. Without waiting he started to unpack his backpack.

**Room of Maria and Tess**

The girls were finished with putting their things away. During their unpacking they managed to hold a conversation. They talked about Highschool, ex boyfriends, overprotective brothers and the fact, that they had the same clothing size. That meant they could switch it once in a while. The whole time they both got friendlier the more time went away. Now they were behaving like they would know each other forever. And they were glad it was that way. It could get really ugly if you couldn´t stand the person you´re sharing a room with.

" Hey Tess, I´ll meet a few of my friends soon. Do you want to tag along?".

Tess was still in the process to find the right place for her beauty contest cup, which she only lost because the winner was sleeping with one of the jury. She only made it to the second place, but she was proud of it anyway. " No. I want to phone my grandfather and then see after my brother. But thanks for asking".

" Alright. I´ll see you later then", Maria took her handbag and went out the door. She knew that she was a little earlier, but she wanted to visit Kyle and see how his room looked like. And a little part of her wanted to see his roommate. Maybe he was cute.

On her way over the campus, she noticed that it wasn´t so crowded anymore and she could finally regnorize her surroundings. It was really huge. The buildings were standing like a square and circled the place where the students could relax against a tree or just talk on one of the benches. Everything was so overwhelming and she missed her highschool. For the first time it hit her that she was away from her family and the people she knew. Thankfully she was saved from breaking out in tears when she stopped in front of Kyle´s room. At least she thought it was the right room. Hesistantly she knocked at the door and waited. Quickly she pulled her jeans higher and smoothed her top down. Before she had the chance to check her appearance the door opened. Shocked she looked in the face of the boy who had the nerve to shamelessly hit on her.

" Hey beautiful. Are you stalking me?", Michael was surprised that she was standing at his door for a few seconds. He didn´t expect to see her so soon actually. But he wasn´t disappointed in the least that he did.

Maria put her right hand on her hips and glared at him. " You wish, buddy", she tried to look behind Michael to see if her brother was near. " Is Kyle there?".

" Maybe. Maybe not. What do I get if I tell you that?", Michael was leaning cool against the doorframe and had his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were fixated on her face and the twinkle in it was unmistakable.

Maria wanted to knee him in the balls right away. But she refrained herself and thought to that she could play this game exactly like him. She was the master in teasing the other gender to the point where they begged for release. Slowly she stepped closer to him and stretched her head close to his right ear. " If you tell me, I will change my mind about ripping your balls off and feeding you with them".

Michael swallowed visibly and stepped back from her. The smile on her face didn´t match the tone in her voice a few seconds ago. But then he looked in her eyes and noticed that they changed her colour and were now sparkling in a dark green. Oh wow, that was more arousing than the things the other girls did to him. She didn´t even touch him or even said something naughty. She threatened him and he found that extremely sexy. He was sick. There was no other explanation.

" Hey Maria. What are you doing here? Didn´t we say we´ll meet outside", the both didn´t realize that they weren´t alone anymore. Kyle had finally found his way to them.

Maria startled for a moment. She had been trapped in Michaels eyes. It was like she knew them from somewhere, only that she couldn´t remember it. Was it strange that she was attracted to someone that annoyed you? She was probably just a little tired and her mind didn´t work fully. " Yeah. But I was curious about your room".

Kyle noticed that something strange was going on here. He eyed Michael and then his sister. What happened before he disturbed them? " I see you´ve meet my roommate Michael".

" Yeah. I bumped into him a while ago", Maria let out the part where he tried to put a move on her. She knew her brother and he didn´t like it when a guy was flirting with her.

Kyle hid his surprise. So, she was the sexy girl Michael mention. That was so not good. Then he remembered his reaction to the description. Ewww, he got a hard on from the image of his sister. Inwardly he shuddered and tried to quell his feeling to lose his food. " Michael this is my sister Maria".

Michael heard the accentuation of sister. Damn, couldn´t he have a uglier sister, then it wouldn´t be too hard to keep the promise of not touching her. " Nice to meet you".

" Yeah. Same here", Maria looked at her watch and noticed that they had to hurry or they would be too late. " I think we should go".

Kyle passed Michael and layed his left arm around his sister. " I´ll see you later".

Michael watched after them. He liked the way Marias butt moved with her steps and the jeans hugged her curves the right way. Yeah it would be really hard to keep his hands off of her.

TBC


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35 Complaints and other things**

Kyle and Maria were on their way to the meeting place they arranged with Liz and Alex. Everybody agreed to be at the big oak in front of the building where they did their registration. Actually they wanted to meet at the entrance of the school building, but decided against it. Alex said it should be something the girls would definitely find. He wasn´t so sure about their sense of direction. Of course he told that just Kyle and not Liz and Maria or else they would have slaughtered him without mercy. They were so sensitive about some subjects. Especially Maria, which were under the impression she was made out of teflon and nothing could hurt her. People who didn´t know her, would agree with her, because they were just looking at the outside. But her family and her friends knew her better and could see behind her mask she wore in front of other people. She wasn´t like Liz, which showed her emotions if she felt like it. She was harder to read and only opened up to people she knew. She appeared like a social butterfly who could make many friends, but that was just an act. In reality, she was just as insecure and scared like everybody else. Just that she was better at hiding it. And that was the reason, why Kyle was worried about her. He didn´t like it when guys like Michael were lusting after her. They usually were just after a night of pleasure and then they were never seen again.

" What?!", Maria finally lost her patience. Her brother stared at her for a while now and it robbed her off of her last nerve. What did he try to see?

Kyle shrugged with his shoulders. Wasn´t it allowed to look at her anymore? " I´m just curious what happened before I got there. I mean with Michael".

Maria stopped in her tracks and turned to her brother. " What do you mean happened? He was being friendly".

" Yeah. A little too friendly for me", Kyle wouldn´t let himself fool from her. He knew when a guy put a move on a girl. And he definitely saw that Michael was hitting on his sister. But after her expression she seemed to have liked it.

Marias face broke out in a smile. Oh Kyle was trying to protect her. Slowly she put her head on his shoulder. " I love it when you go all big brother on me. It makes me feel so loved".

Kyle rolled his eyes at her. But she wasn´t so wrong about that. He always behaved like the big brother that had to protect his little sister from harm. Actually it was bullshit, because they were the same age. " I just want you to be careful. I don´t want to see you get hurt. Is that so bad?".

" No it´s not", Maria loved her brother because of that. He made her feel safe and she knew he only meant it well. But he shouldn´t worry about her. She wasn´t so helpless. " I know you´re just looking out for me, but I can take care of myself".

Kyle was aware of that, he really was. Still he felt better when he knew that she was well and happy. He didn´t want to see her be crushed from another guy like she was with Billy. She almost lost everything that made her who she was. It was bad to observe it one time, he had no desire for a repeat. " I know. But be careful after all".

" I will, I promise", Maria couldn´t stop herself and pinched his cheeks with both hands. " Besides I could hurt him without even touching him. This babies never let me down", like a gunslinger she blowed on her two forefingers.

Kyle laughed about the true statement. She wasn´t just a normal girl. She was a special girl with the gift to move objects with her mind or blow things up. They discovered them when they were eight years old. They both played with their toys outside in the garden, Maria with her barbie doll and he with his spiderman figure. Suddenly he jumped to his feets and said that he wanted to try something. Before his sister could say something he was already on his way up the big tree that was standing in the middle of their garden. Immediately Maria went after her brother and screamed that they weren´t allowed to climb on the tree, because it was too dangerous. But Kyle wouldn´t listen and looked for the highest branch. After he found him, he placed himself directly on him and jumped up and down. He wanted to check out if he could swing through the air like his hero. But then the branch under him broke and he fell in the direction of the hard ground. Scared he closed his eyes and waited for the brutal crash. However it never came to that. When he opened his eyes again he was hovering over the ground. Surprised he looked at his sister, which was stunned looking at him with her outstretched arms. It was like she was holding him, althrough she was at least five feets away from him. Pretty terrified about the thing she just did with Kyle, she pulled her hands back and saw how he fell the remaining way down. After that she ran away crying. Since that day, they shared a special bond with each other. A bond that was deeper than just blood related. Nobody knew about her, except for Alex and Liz, who learned about Marias powers later, when she saved the life of her best friend from a gunshot. " Yeah. But don´t use them in front of others. I don´t want that anything happens to you".

" Sure thing, bro", Maria was always careful about using her powers. How did Kyle think their parents were still in the dark about her? Not even Billy knew something and he spent the most time with her alone.

Kyle laid his arm around her shoulder again and continued their way. He couldn´t help himself, he was always so worried about her, althrough he could spare that. She could do more damage without using her limbs than him with a baseball bat. Suddenly he was thrown out of his thoughts when he noticed their friends sitting under the tree. Obviously something went wrong, because Liz was hiding her face behind her hands and Alex was caressing her head. Instantly he and Maria, which realized the same, picked up their speed and almost ran to them.

" What happened?", Maria let herself slump besides her best friend and stroked her back.

Liz dropped her hands from her face and looked at the other girl. She wasn´t crying like they expected. Instead her eyes were flashing dangerously. " My new roommate is what happened!".

Kyle stepped back from the intensity of the words. He didn´t know that Liz could be so loud and so angry. Usually she was one of the nicest person. But he didn´t know this side of her. " What about her?".

" She´s a total princess. She came into the room and started complaining about the furniture. She wasn´t even there for a minute and she already began to rearrange everything. And she was asking me if she could use my closet as well, because all her clothes wouldn´t fit in hers. She had four suitcases. FOUR!", Liz was a nervous wreck. She was close to rip her hair from her head. It would be hell to live with Queen Elisabeth.

Maria faced her brother, who was trying to hide his laughter behind his hands. She herself was close to laughing out loud. She had never seen her friend so outraged. " Yeah and? I have three suitcases. What is so bad about that?".

Alex shook his head. He didn´t want to listen to the list of complaints again. He had still enough from the first time. He didn´t understand the problem actually. It was just clothes and he couldn´t get his head around the fact that Liz was so angry about that. Maybe it was a chick thing and he wasn´t supposed to get it. " Hey Kyle. I heared there is a pool table somewhere here. How about we go and look for it?".

" That´s a great idea", he was glad to get away from the girls. He hated to listen to girl talk. And he didn´t even understand all this fuss. " Are you both staying here?".

Maria looked up from comforting her friend. " At least for a while. Maybe later we look around campus".

Alex stood up and walked to Kyle. " Ok. Then we´ll see each other later".

Maria waited until the boys where out of sight before she focused all her attention on her best friend again, who seemed to be close to explode. She didn´t know why Liz was so angry. But she was sure that it has nothing to do with the four suitcases or the many clothes. There was more. " Alright. Now that we´re alone, you can tell me the real reason for freaking out".

" Do you have enough time for that? I think we´re still sitting here tomorrow", Liz tried to stall as long as possible. Maria would probably think she was stupid when she told her the real reason for her outburst. Of course it wasn´t about the clothes or the many luggage.

Maria looked at the other girl with a raised eyebrow. She wouldn´t fall for the stalling tactic, after all she was the one who was master to avoid questions or try to draw the attention to another topic when there was something she didn´t want to talk about. " Oh I think we have enough time. I can sit here all night long if I have to. So don´t try to avoid the subject here".

Liz sighed while she brushed a strand behind her ear. She should have known that she couldn´t fool her best friend that way. " It´s just that my roommate makes me feel like I´m still in high school. I mean she´s like Pam Troy without the slutty clothes".

" Uh, that´s nasty", Maria scrunched up her face. She remembered Pam all too well. That girl tried more than once to destroy her reputation in school. And she was her greatest rival at the prom. That was no wonder, because she was very popular with the complete football team. Three guesses why. They both were in the same cheerleading squad and everytime they clashed it was like world war III. " What did she do that was so bad?".

" She ordered me around and didn´t listen if I refused to do something. It was like I was her slave", Liz had enough to be the whipping boy for everyone. Alright she wasn´t gorgeous or even talkative like other girls, but she was smart. And yet she couldn´t open her mouth to say what she wanted. She was too shy to stand up against girls that were more beautiful than her. There were just two people from the popular crowd that weren´t intimidating her. Kyle and Maria.

Maria didn´t like to hear that. Nobody was allowed to treat her best friend like a maiden or make her feel bad. Slowly she took the other girls face in her hand and made her look at her. " Don´t let yourself put down. Tell her that you´re not her attendant or her mother. Kick her ass if you have to. But do something".

Liz shook her head. If she could do that she would have done it already. She didn´t have the confidence in herself to step up to someone. " I can´t. You know me. I´m always shy around girls, who look like models".

" And? You´re beautiful, too. Not to mention smart", Maria hated it when her best friend thought she wasn´t pretty enough or she had to hide behind others. She had more to offer than all this super models on the world. She was intelligent, she was always friendly to others, she was a loyal friend and most of all she was the truest soul ever. " But if you want I can help you. I could sneak into you´re room when she´s sleeping and cut her hair".

Liz broke out in laughter just by the thought. Yeah that would be funny to watch, when her roommate woke up with her long hair gone. But she wasn´t like that. She would never do something that could harm someone. " Thanks for the offer, but I have to refuse".

" Well. If you change you´re mind, give me a call", Maria set out to help her friend anyway, even if she just talked to her roommate. " By the way. What is her name".

Liz rolled her eyes and assumed her voice that she sounded like a preppy cheerleader. " Isabel Evans".

" No wonder you´re hating her. The name says already everything", Maria could picture the mentioned girl. Tall, blonde and snobby. The kind of princess she always despised in high school. The kind who thought they were better than others and stood above everyone.

Liz was glad that Maria was her best friend. She always knew how to cheer her up and make her laugh. If they talked with each other she felt like the world wasn´t so bad anymore. And as long as she had her friend at her side, college wouldn´t be so hard.

**Girls building**

Tess was just finished with talking to her grandfather and put her cellphone in her bag again. She just wanted to let him know that they arrived save. Of course he was sure about that, but he was relieved to hear that they made it in one piece to the college. Now Tess took her jeans jacket and made her way to Michaels room. She had so much to tell her brother and she was curious how his roommate might be looking. Maybe he was cute and she would finally meet someone other than all this slimy rich men who just wanted a girl as a trophy. A woman they could show around and who kept her mouth closed. Too bad that she wasn´t one of this women. She was loud, she talked too much and she wasn´t afraid to speak right from her mind. And the man who would win her heart someday should accept her like she was and not like he wanted her to be. She wouldn´t change for anybody, not even for someone she would love in the future. Suddenly Tess was kicked out of her thoughts when she collied with something. Startled she looked up at the object she ran into. Unfortunately it was another person, to be exact it was a girl that looked like a super model. She was pretty tall, had long blonde hair and brown eyes.

" I´m sorry. I didn´t see you".

The girl eyed her with disdain at first and then she checked her out from head to toe, before she let her gaze wander to her face again. " It´s alright. Nothing hurt".

Tess didn´t like to be viewed at from above from other girls. Especially the ones who thought they were more pretty than others. And yet something seemed to draw her to this girl. There was something familiar. The same feeling she got from her roommate Maria. " Alright then. We´ll probably see each other around here from time to time".

" Wait. Do you know the building where the boys are in?", the girl didn´t want to lose the conversation with Tess. It was like something told her that she should get to know her. That she was somehow different than the other people around campus. And there was this instant connection between them.

Tess smiled friendly at her. " Yeah. I´m just on my way there to visit my brother".

" Cool. I wanted to do the same right now. Maybe we can go together", the girl let a small grin appear on her face.

Tess liked that suggestion. Maybe her first impression on the girl wasn´t the right one. Her grandfather always told her that she should base her opinion on the second glance and not the first. And obviously he was right about that. " Sure. I don´t mind. By the way my name is Tess Dupree".

The girl smiled really this time and not just some fake smile that most of her kind did. " Isabel Evans".

" Nice to meet you", and she really meant. It wasn´t just a polite empty phrase, she really felt that way. It was strange, but it appeared to her like she would finally come to the place where she belonged and find people who seemed to be familiar to her. Maybe she imagined everything, but it was like it was her destiny to meet them.

Isabel threw her blonde hair over her shoulder. " Same here", she couldn´t shake the feeling to know Tess from somewhere. But she couldn´t remember if it was just her mind playing tricks on her or if it was true. " So I think we should finally go".

Tess shook her head. She thought too much and it wasn´t good for her. She would get behind this feeling someday. But she wouldn´t find out something if she tried to hard. It would come to her when she at least expected it. " Yeah ".

They both started walking and on their way to the other building they spoke about their favourite music, about their families and of course about boys.

**Across campus**

Kyle and Alex were wandering around the whole place and they were at least in three buildings. But they didn´t find this room with the pool table in it. They even asked a few people, which were no help at all, because they were also new students here. Now they were sitting in front of their house on the provided chairs that were standing there. Both observed the sky that was slowly getting dark and sometimes they eyed the people who were still walking around.

" And how do you find your roommate so far?", Alex was curious with whom his friend was staying for the next few years. He already knew about Liz and he wanted to know if it was just her or if he was the only one who was satisfied with his companion.

Kyle grinned. " Actually he´s really cool. He´s the grandson of Charles Dupree and he´s exactly like me in some kind".

Alex noticed that a but would follow this sentence. " What do you mean with actually cool?".

" I don´t like that he was obviously flirting with Maria and he spoke about her like she was just an object", it really bothered him that his roommate was after his sister. It wasn´t so unusual that boys put a move on her. But he knew those guys like Michael and they were just after a quick lay. After they had what they wanted they disappeared and he didn´t want that. Not when he had to share a room with the said guy.

Alex refrained from laughing out loud. He didn´t know how many times they had this conversation. It was always the same. A boy had interest in Maria and Kyle went totally big brother on her. In the end she got on a date with the boy and was pissed at her brother. " Dude, you´re worrying too much. And don´t tell me you don´t talk about girls any different?".

" It´s something complete different. He was talking about my sister that way", alright, Kyle shouldn´t be mad at Michaels behaviour, because he was guilty to do the same. But it wasn´t like he spoke like that in front of the girls brothers.

Alex patted his friend on his shoulder. If kyle wanted to believe that lie, he wouldn´t say something against it. But it wasn´t that different. This girls probably had brothers, too and he didn´t think they would have acted so weird. " Alright. If you think so".

Kyle didn´t want to talk about his roommate any longer, so he changed the topic. " How about you´re housemate?".

" He´s a pretty ok guy. I feel like I´m living with Liz. Just without the boobs and the estrogen", Alex couldn´t subject something at him. He was someone that would have perfectly fitted in their tight little group. Especially with Liz. They both had much in common. Well, except for the music taste. But all in all, it was like they were seperated by birth.

Kyle could already picture this guy. He was probably wearing glasses and looked like Steve Urkel. Someone from the sort of nerds, which had only interest in academic grades and didn´t know fun. Thank god that he was spared to share a room with that kind. Not that he had anything against those, but he wanted to have fun as long as he could and he didn´t need someone who would stop him from doing that. " That´s sounds pretty boring if you ask me. Not that I think Liz is boring or something. But you know what I mean. She´s not exactly miss party".

Alex knew what he meant with that. Liz wasn´t the kind of girl who went out that much. At least not of her free will. It was always Maria who took her along. But it didn´t seem like his roommate was like that actually. " Max isn´t so, at least I think so from what I´ve heared. His sister was always taking him with her to a party. She seemes to be exactly like Maria from what he told me".

" Oh boy. It´s hard enough to get along with one of her kind. But to have two? That´s the end of the world as we know it", Kyle loved his sister dearly. But she could be real pain in the ass sometimes. They were often too much alike than he liked it. And it happened that they clashed against each other. Unfortunately she won this fights all the time.

Alex didn´t even told him the funniest part of the story. " Yeah. And guess what? She´s Liz roommate".

At that Kyle broke out in laughter. Now finally it got really interesting. But before he could open his mouth, something caught his eye. There were two pretty hot girls on the way in their direction. One was tall, blonde and absolute gorgeous, however she didn´t have his attention at the moment, because he wasn´t so into the model type anymore. No his eyes wandered to the other girl with the blonde curly hair. She was cute and exactly like he wanted his future girlfriend to be. Trying to be as unflashy as possible he nudged Alex with his elbow and pointed in front of him. Seconds later his friend saw to the same direction and noticed the babes walking towards them.

" Wow. Now I´m finally home", Alex wasn´t so sad to attent do this college anymore. If every girl would look like that, he was sure that he made the right desicion.

Kyle nodded with his head. " I second that".

Alex roamed his eyes over the body of the tall blonde. She was breathtaking beautiful and the kind of girl he only could dream of. Too bad that he wasn´t more like Kyle or even a little like his rommate. They seemed to attract the attention of the girls around them. " Should we say hello or something?".

Kyle turned his face towards his friend. Was he asking this for real? No wonder he never had a date with a cute girl. It wasn´t because of his looks, because he wasn´t ugly. At least as much as he could tell from a guys opinion. It was just his clumpsy way to approach the other gender. " Oh my. You really have no idea how to charm a girl. You have to play it cool, man".

The girls were slowly coming closer to them. Alex got more nervous the closer they were to them. Contrary to his companion, which sat lazyily in his chair and put on his trade mark smirk. That always worked for him. Finally he caught eye contact with the smaller blonde. Immediately her cheeks turned a nice shade of pink and she looked away. But not before Kyle could see the little smile playing around her lips. Score. The taller one didn´t even notice anything, she was too busy with talking. When the girls passed them, Alex couldn´t control himself.

" Hy", he blurted out. He almost screamed it and startled them.

Kyle rolled his eyes at his friend. But to spare him the humilitation, he tried to draw the attention to himself rather than to Alex, which was looking like he wanted the earth to open up and swallow him. Hence he intensivied his smirk and raised his eyebrow. " Hey".

" Hey", the smaller one gave him a shy smile before she disappeared behind the door. At least she acknowledge them. The other one didn´t even look in their direction. Except shortly when Alex cried out loud. But after that she turned to the front immediately.

Kyle saw after his new interest and watched how her butt swayed seductively from side to side. Too bad that she closed the door behind her. With a full smile this time he faced Alex. " Wow, what a great ass".

" Oh my god! I was behaving like an idiot! I embarrased myself! Please shoot me!", Alex put his face into his hands and tried to make himself disappear. How stupid could he act? He wasn´t some dumb jock. He could formulate whole sentences, complete with subordinated clauses. And now his brain failed him. One good thing was there at least. He didn´t drool or start stuttering.

" Hey, don´t beat yourself up. It wasn´t that bad. They noticed you and believe me, they won´t forget you that easily", they would probably never forget him. He scared them a little with his outburst. But Kyle intented to help his friend. He would show him his tricks.

Alex looked through his fingers. It wasn´t that bad? Was he sleeping while he made an ass out of himself? Oh god, he should change the university or better, leave the country. Or maybe the NASA had still a seat available in a rocket. " I can´t let myself be seen here on campus ever again".

Kyle thumped his friends arm. " Don´t say that. I´ll help you and in a few days the girls will be after you, like moths after the light".

" Do you think that will still help with me?".

" Of course or I wouldn´t have suggested it. Now come one, get your ass in gear. I want to look after the girls", Kyle jumped to his feet and walked away.

Alex shook his head while he heaved his body out of the chair. Maybe it would help to ease his mind to concentrate on Liz´ problem.

**Kyle and Michaels room**

Tess knocked softly at the door. She wasn´t so sure if it was the right room, but her brother told her that it was the first door at the stairs. Now she waited until the door opened. While she was doing that, she thought about her new friend Isabel. They both had so much in common that it was scary. It felt like they would know each other forever. She only had this feeling once and that was with Maria. But before she could elaborate on that too much, the door finally opened and Michael stretched his head out.

" Oh it´s just you".

Tess rolled her eyes at him. " Hello to you, too". Without waiting for an indication that she could enter, she squeezed past her brother into the room. " Did you expect someone else?".

Michael closed the door and followed his sister, which was in the process to eye their little empire. " No".

" Then why the sullen face when you saw me?", Tess noticed that Michael´s side of the room looked exactly like his bedroom at home. Above his bed was a big Metallica Poster and besides that one from Staind. She didn´t know why her brother listened to such crap. It was so dark and you even couldn´t dance on this music. The only thing you did was nodding with your head and play an invisible guitar. At least that was what Michael always did.

Michael took a seat on his bed. " Because".

Tess looked at her brother. Great he was answering in simple words again. Why couldn´t Michael be normal for once? Why did he have to be such a jerk sometimes? " That´s not an answer".

" For me it is and it´s all you will get from me", Michael didn´t want his sister to snoop around his private life. She didn´t need to know that he hoped to see Maria again and get behind the feeling of knowing her. It was strange, but he never was so interested in a girl that obviously had no desire to be in close proximity with him.

Tess sat besides her brother and stared at him. Something was going on in him, something that bothered him. " Is it a girl?".

Michaels head snapped in the direction of his sister. Was he that obvious? " Why you´re asking me that? It´s not always about a girl, alright!", althrough she wasn´t that wrong about that, but she wouldn´t find that out.

Tess was taken aback from the intensitiy of his voice. She had hit a sore spot or else he wouldn´t react so strongly about a simple question. And the fact that he had looked at her like a deer caught in the headlights was another indication that it was a girl. " Geez, what crawled up your butt? I was just asking. You don´t have to bite my head of because of that".

" I´m sorry. It´s not you. I think I finally realised that I´m not at home anymore and everything caught up with me", he wasn´t mad at his sister. He was mad at himself for thinking about Maria since he bumped into her. She didn´t get out of his head anymore and it bugged him to no end. He didn´t know what was so different about her, why she was not like any other girls he meet so far?

" Yeah I know that feeling", Tess knew that it wasn´t the reason, but she knew that her brother wouldn´t talk when she pushed him. He would tell her when he thought it was the right time. " So how is your roommate so far?".

Michael was glad that his sister didn´t bug him anymore. Sometimes she was more sensitive than he thought. " He´s really cool. A little like me, althrough not so attractive".

" You´re so full of yourself, you know that", Tess looked at the opposite side of the room. It was still a little messy, but she was used to that from Michael. She noticed trophies and medals. Obviously his roommate was a jock. Probably someone who crashed beer cans on his forehead, thought that armani was a new product by McD´s and had a brain of the size of a pea. Suddenly she detected a little frame with a photo on the nightstand. Slowly she arose from the bed and made her way there. Carefully she took it in her hands and eyed the picture. She saw a happy family, complete with parents and three kids. The boy was the one who flirted with in front of the building. Alright, maybe dumb wasn´t so bad with that face. Then her glance wandered to the girl besides him. It was Maria. " Hey, your roommate is the brother of my roommate".

Michael jumped to his feet immediately. What was she talking about. " You´re sharing your room with Maria?".

Tess faced her brother surprised. Score. She had her evidence that it was a girl he was expecting. And after the excited expression on his face someone he wanted to know better. He didn´t remember every name of a girl he just meet. Usually he didn´t even remember the names of the girls he nailed for a night. " Yeah. Why do you wanna know? You´ve cast an eye on her or something?".

Michael was tempted to deny everything. But if someone would understand him it was his sister. Confused he brushed his hand through his hair. He let out a frustated sigh. " It´s not that. I mean she´s absolute gorgeous and exactly my type. But there´s something different about her. Something I can´t explain. It´s just this feeling like I would know her".

" You felt it, too?", Tess didn´t know if she should freak out or be happy. She and Michael knew all their lifes that they were not like any normal kids. They had powers nobody else had. Since they discovered their gifts they tried to hide them from everyone. They were scared to get captured or get branded as freaks. They didn´t know where their powers were coming from and they stopped looking for an explanation. Michael thought they were like Superman, aliens, who were stranded here. But Tess told him that they were born and not send on a spaceship. She thought they were just blessed with special gifts, nothing more.

Michael stared at his sister stunned. " Do you think it means something? Maybe she´s one of us?".

" Do you listen to yourself? You´re talking like we´re freaks or creatures from outer space. We´re just different than everybody else", Tess didn´t want to start again with the hiding. She just wanted to be a normal girl on a normal college with her normal brothers. Why couldn´t Michael understand that. She needed a new start and that was the reason why she choose this college. It was far away from Tucson and nobody knew her here.

Michael was close to lose the control over his powers. That wouldn´t be the first time. Everytime he was highly emotional or really angry, his powers just appeared and let things near him explode or break. Sometimes he wished to know more about them, so that he could control them better. But they never figured out from where they were coming from or why they had them. " We are freaks, if you want it or not. Different means we´re not like normal people and that leads to my " Freak " concept. I know you don´t want to hear that, but it´s the truth. I accepted it, because I can´t change it. I´ll advice you to do the same and life will be easier".

Tess eyes were brimming with tears when she turned to Michael. " I can´t do that like you. I´m so sick of hiding who I really am from everybody. I just want a normal life. Is that so much to ask?".

Instantly Michael went to his sister and embraced her tightly. No matter how many fights they had, they always sticked together. No wonder, they only had themself. Slowly he stroked her head. " You´re not the only one who wants that. I want to find a girl, settle down somewhere and make a few babies with her. But there are things that will be always just a dream".

" If normal is just a dream, then I don´t want to wake up from it".

Michael looked over his sisters shoulder at the picture of Maria with her family. Strangly he felt the same since he meet her.

**Alex and Max room**

Isabel was still looking for the room her brother was in. She had knocked at every door on this floor, because she forgot, which number Max had told her. Well, she was actually too busy with arranging her side of the room to listen to her brother. But now she was standing at the last door of the floor and hopefully she was even on the right house. A little irritated she knocked at the door. Immediately she heared strange noises coming from the room, like something fell to the ground. Isabel tried to stiffle her laughter behind her hands. A few seconds Max opened the door with a pretty red face and a suspicious smile.

" Hey, I didn´t expect you so soon".

Isabel tried to peek around her brother to see what had him so nervous and embarressed. But he was blocking her view with his body. " What are you doing in there? Did I disturb you with something?".

Max made an attempt to hide his embarrassement. He just had been in the process to put his collection of UFO sightings and other things under his bed. Since he and his sister discovered that they could do things nobody else could, he was trying to find out why they had them and how they could control them. But so far, all he knew was that the crash in 1947 was just a supposedly weatherballon, the alienautopsy was just fake and he didn´t found any indication that aliens were real or even landed here. He even had a few articles from people with supernatural abilities. But he was sure that it was just BS to get money from dummies who believed in that. He also thought it was a possibility that they were mutants. Isabel didn´t want to believe anything that was not natural. She was under the impression that it was nothing unusual to get into dreams of others and snoop around there. She just wanted to forget about their gifts and be a normal girl. And he respected that, he didn´t understand it, but he respected it. " Nothing and No".

" Do you let me in or do I have to stand here on the corridor the whole time?", Isabel had the suspicion that her brother tried to hide something from her. If it was his collection of supernatural articles and other things, he didn´t have to do that. She knew about that and she even read a few of them. Not that she believed the things she read, but some were really funny.

Max stepped out of his room and closed the door behind himself. " Why don´t we take a look around campus? It´s such a nice evening and after tomorrow we won´t have the chance to see everything when not so much people are around".

Isabel raised her eyebrow. Her brother was probably the weirdest person on earth. But to avoid some kind of argument she shut her mouth and dropped her suspicion. " Alright. If you want".

" So how is everything? Are you comfortable with the girl you sharing a room with?", Max linked his arm through his sisters and started walking. He was glad that she dropped the topic and decided to be pleasantry for a change.

Isabel rolled her eyes. Her roommate was not what she expected. " She´s a nerd and has no fashion style. I mean if I would be looking so boring then I would definitely dress more eye-catching. But apart from that I think she´s a nice girl. We will never be best friends, but we will get along".

Max refrained from groaning. His sister was sometimes so shallow and mean. That wasn´t the girl he grew up with. She was always caring and helped others. She even did a few charity things at home. But sometimes she behaved like a snob, even in front of him, althrough he knew her better than that. " Why do you have to judge every person from their appearance? Not everyone is like you, you know".

" Why are you attacking me? I didn´t judge her, I was just stating a fact", Isabel didn´t understand her brother sometimes. Was it that bad to say the truth? She just told him her first impression on her roommate.

" I hate it when you do like you think you´re better than others. It´s not the Isabel I know. The girl who collected money for the children in the orphanage or supervised the little play at christmas", Max didn´t like it when his sister changed her personality in front of others. She wasn´t that cold hearted or snobby. She was just a scared girl that feared to be different than others and judge after that. That was the reason why she tried to appear like an Ice Princess.

Isabel sighed loud. Sometimes she forgot to drop her act in front of her brother. But it was hard to be two persons at the same time. The popular cheerleader with her friends and the loving sister/daughter with her family. " I´m sorry. It´s just that I´m so used to be like that. I don´t know how I can change that".

Max smiled at her. He knew that feeling all too well. He was also hiding behind his quiteness. He was always the boy behind the tree that was watching everybody else having fun. But he wanted to come out from his hiding place and join them. And now he could do that here in college. Maybe he would finally find some nice friends and a girlfriend. " Don´t worry. I will help you with that".

" So and what can you say about you´re roommate?", Isabel tried to take off her princess attitude and be like her family knew her. The nice girl.

Max thought about the first meeing with Alex. There was this instantly liking. He was the kind of guy who would perfectly match him. " I like him. He´s really funny and he plays guitar".

" So he´s a musician?", Isabel´s interest was piqued. Guitarist were pretty hot and they were popular. Maybe she should visit her brother more often in the near future.

Max shook his head. As much as he could gather from Alex he was more interested in Computer and such. " He said he had a band in high school with his best friend. But I think it was more a fun thing than a get rich thing. He´s taking classes in IT".

Isabel didn´t like the sound of that. Now she had a picture of some geek with classes in her mind. The kind of guy she looked down on during her school time. Alright, she wasn´t perfect and had her faults, but all her friend did it and she didn´t want to be different from them. " That´s sounding nice".

" Don´t say something wrong until you meet him", Max heard the tone in her voice and he wanted to prevent her from telling him her thoughts.

" I didn´t say anything".

Max turned his head to her. " I know what you´re thinking and it´s not nice".

Isabel started to pout and pulled her arm back. She crossed them over her chest. " You´re no fun. I hate that you know me so well".

" That´s the curse of being a twin. You know what I think and I know what you think", Max had so much fun with that gift. They could tease each other with it and nobody would know what it was about. Their parents often wondered about what they were talking.

Isabel laughed about that. Sometimes he didn´t know what was going through her mind. Thankfully or he would have gotten a heartattack already. She didn´t think he would find it so funny to hear what his sister was thinking about a few guys from their school. " You don´t know everything I think".

Max stopped in his tracks and faced his sister. What was she talking about? " Are you sure about that?".

" Absolutely. Do you know what I´m thinking right now?", she stared in his eyes and tried to see any reaction. She was just thinking that her brother was a dork. When she saw how his eyes widened she continued her walk.

Max immediately followed after her. " Hey. I´m not a dork!".

**Somewhere on the campus**

A man with blue jeans, a white shirt and a gray slipover was standing in a dark corner. He was observing the four people at the big tree with his blue eyes. Two guys and two girls. The blonde one had catched his eye. He would regnorize her everywhere. Marianna. then he turned his face to the couple, who was walking in another direction. Zan and Vilandra. After that he faced the window in the first floor of the boys dorm. There he saw the two remaining members of the royal family, Rath and Ava. Carefully he took some black object out of his jeans pocket and opened it up.

Immediately a voice came from it. " Yeah".

" They´re here".

A little pause on the other end. " Alright".

TBC


	36. Chapter 36

**Thankx to RedJewel2662, Trude and Jadefire305 for their lovely feedback.**

**Chapter 36 The first day in class**

Maria and Tess made their way to the dining hall early the next morning. Both were extremly nervous and excited at once. Today they would attent to their first courses. Neither of them got enough sleep last night and strangly it wasn´t to see on their faces. They looked like they originated from a fashion magazine. Tess decided to wear nothing too fancy for this day, because she wanted to blend in. At least for now. Hence she wore a knee-length jeans skirt, a pink tank top and her favourite sneakers, which were also pink. Her hair was falling in little curls around her face and her make up was decently accentuating her beautiful face. She was looking like a little school girl. Contrary to Maria, who wasn´t in the mood to impress someone with her looks. She was just wearing a blue jeans, a short black t-shirt, which had " Blonds have more fun" written in silver glitter on the front and " I´m the living prove" on the backside and her sneakers. Her hair was bound to a ponytail and she left out the make up. She didn´t needed it at all.

" What class do you have first?", Tess found it too bad that they weren´t in the same courses. They both had choosen a different path. She wanted to be a teacher and Maria was more into business.

Maria pulled a piece of paper from her notepad, which she held in front of her chest and eyed it. " I have General Business. What about you?".

Tess followed the example of her roommate and looked on her schedule. " Psychology".

Maria made a face about that. That sounded more boring than her class. But before she could voice her oppinion, she saw someone waving her over. Happily she noticed Kyle sitting at a table. Unfortunately he wasn´t alone. Michael was with him. " Hey Tess, do you want to sit with me and my brother?".

Tess looked at the table and detected her brother sitting there, too. " Yeah. I don´t have another choice or else my brother will be very pissed off".

" Michael is your brother?".

Tess sighed loud. " Unfortunately yes".

Maria started to laugh. She knew that feeling all too well. Sometimes she was under the impression she and her brother were not related at all. At times they both were so unlike that it looked like they would come from different parents. But then, most time they were so much alike that it was scary. " My sympathies".

" Thank you", Tess knew why she like her roommate so much. They were in the same boat and they could relate to each other with some things. " I think we finally should get something to eat. I don´t know about you, but I´m hungry".

Maria was actually too nervous to get something down. But she knew that it wasn´t good to leave breakfast out, because then she would eat everything in sight tonight. And she didn´t want to feel sick when she went to bed again. She already made that experience once and she was almost all night hanging over the toilet bowl and puked her guts out. " I hope they have something light. I don´t think I can stomach anything else right now".

Tess eyed the selection of food in front of them. There was everything, from eggs in all variations to fruitsalad. Immediately she found something for herself. A bowl with strawberry yoghurt and besides that was a bowl of cornflakes. Perfect, just what she wanted. " Come on, before I faint from hunger".

Maria shook her head at her roommate. How could she think about eating something now? A little reluctantly she followed Tess. They got themself each a tray and stuffed their things on it. It didn´t take too long and before they knew it, they were already sitting at the table with their food in front of them.

" Is everything alright with you?", asked Kyle immediately. He saw the apple and the glass of orange juice on his sisters tray. Usually she could eat more than him.

Maria took the apple and took a little bite from it. " Yeah. Why you´re asking?".

" I´m actually used to see you eat more than just a little apple. I´m just wondering if you decided to make a diet or if you´re sick", Kyle eyed his sister closer. She didn´t look ill or something. And she was against all kinds of diets. She thought they were unhealthy and just there to give other girls a complex.

Maria faced her brother with an angry expression. Was it so bad to be nervous? It wasn´t her fault that her stomach was a little queasy this morning and she couldn´t think about food without quelling the feeling to puke. " Now you´re sounding like Mom. I´m just not that hungry. Or is that a crime now?".

Kyle noticed the sparkling eyes of his sister and he knew she was close to start a fight with him if he didn´t shut his mouth. But he was just looking out for her. " I was just asking. I´m sorry if that was rude of me".

" See. I told you that we weren´t the only ones who are always fighting with each other. It´s perfectly normal for siblings to bicker", Michael had watched the interaction with interest. It was like seeing himself with Tess.

His sister refrained from laughing out loud. It was like looking in the mirror when she and Michael began to get into a fight. Just that it was the other way around. She was always the one asking and he was the one either answering with a nasty remark or just groaning annoyed. " Yeah. It´s good to know that we aren´t so strange than we thought".

Kyle finally realized that they weren´t alone and he immediately hide his blushing face by dropping his head on his arms, which were lying on the table. Oh damn, his first contact with his new interest and he made an ass out of himself. Now he knew how Alex must have felt yesterday.

" You have to excuse him. We´re still in the process to teach him manners", Maria loved it to tease her brother while he was embarassed. She didn´t know why he felt that way. It wasn´t like he was sitting here in the nude and flashed everybody else. But when she turned to Tess and her smiling face, she understood it. Her brother had cast an eye on her roommate and like it looked, she wasn´t so against it. " Kyle, did I introduce you to my roommate Tess?".

Kyle raised his face and hoped that the redness was gone from it. He didn´t want to look like a blushing school boy, who never had contact with the other gender. " No. But I think you will do that soon".

Maria faced her roommate with a twinkle in her eyes. " Tess that´s Kyle, my brother", after that she turned her head to her brother. " Kyle, that´s Tess".

" I think we saw each other yesterday in front of the boys dorms", Tess still remembered the smile and the raised eyebrow. He knew exactly how to make a girl feel charmed. She couldn´t get him out of her head all night long and part of the morning.

Kyle saw the slight redness creeping into Tess cheeks and he liked it. It looked really cute on her. He would definitely get to know her better and if he had to pester his sister for that. " Yeah. I have to apologize for my friend. He didn´t mean to startle you. He just had never saw so beautiful girls before".

Michael observed the conversation between his roommate and his sister with suspicion. Were they both flirting with each other? And why was it allowed for them and not for him? He faced Maria, who was watching the scene with a smile. He was in awe how gorgeous she looked when she smiled. Her whole face seemed to glow and her eyes seemed to be sparkle in the lightest green. It was like she would brighten the room just with that little gesture. He didn´t know that such women were existing in reality. He always thought it was just a phantasy from sappy writers, who in his eyes were smoking too much crap or authors from shows that were made from women, who had too much time on their hands. But now he was proven wrong. He found exactly such a woman. And she was much more than just a fictitiuos character from a novel, she was a real breathing person. In that moment he knew that he would never grew tired of watching her.

Suddenly he was thrown out of his thoughts when another person stopped at their table and let the tray drop onto the table. Annoyed the girl slumped on her chair and groaned loud. " Hey guys. I already thought I wouldn´t make it on time".

" What´s up? Did you oversleep?", Maria was a bit surprised about the shakened condition her friend was in. It wasn´t so usual for Liz to be late. She was most of the time the first to appear. It was her greatest fear to miss something or get yelled at for not being on time. That was the reason why she had three alarm clocks in her room.

Liz took her sandwich and bit hastily into it. Oh thank godness for food. She didn´t know how hungry she actually was. " No. I was up hours ago", she took another bite and swallowed it with a gulp of her tea. " Isabel wanted to do something nice for me, because she wanted to apologize for being so commanding. She made a fashion show and showed me how I could dress more eye catching".

Maria already noticed the new style and she really liked it. Instead of wearing blue jeans and a nice plain shirt, she was wearing black tight jeans with a blue top. Her hair was thankfully not falling into her face anylonger and was held backwards from a golden band. The only thing that didn´t change was that she wasn´t wearing any make up. And obviously Liz got over her first impression of her roommate. " So I would say everything is better between you?".

" Yes. She isn´t so bad when she´s not behaving like a princess".

Kyle took his eyes from Tess and finally registered that Liz was sitting with them. He was stunned about her appearance. She didn´t look so boring anymore and her clothes were more colorful. He liked it. " Hey Parker. What happened with your old clothes? Did you finally notice that brown is out?".

Liz glared at him. Alright she wasn´t a fashion victim like Maria. But she was satisfied with her style and she liked brown. " Weren´t you listening to me? I just said that Isabel helped me pick out my outfit for today".

Maria bent her head closer to her friend and whispered. " Don´t be too harsh with him. He was too busy flirting with my roommate to even noticed that you came", she threw a glance at her brother who was already in the process to turn on his charm again. Someone should tell him that it was sickening to watch.

" He already has someone in mind? Wow, that´s really fast", Liz couldn´t understand how he always did that. He just had to smile at a girl and they were jello in his hands. All the reaction she got from boys when she smiled was either they turned to their girlfriends, made a hasty retreat or looked away. She obviously made something wrong.

Maria saw the surprised expression on her friends face. Why was she even so stunned about that. Kyle was pretty fast in such things. It was the Valenit charm or because the girls were all blind bimbos, she couldn´t decide yet. But Tess didn´t seem to be the type of airheads her brother always dated. Maybe he was finally growing up and noticed that it wasn´t smart to date someone with the IQ of a potatoe.

" Hey ladies", Alex smiled at his two best friends and then he turned his head to his other friend. " And Kyle", slowly he placed himself besides Liz and put his tray on the table. " What did I miss?".

Liz pointed at Kyle and Tess. " Welcome to wild animal kingdom".

" Yeah. We just wanted to bet how long it´s gonna take before they throw each other on the table and mate like bunnies", Maria meant that just as a joke. But after she saw the horrified expression of Michael, she felt bad for saying that. He was her brother and didn´t want to hear something like that about his little sister. " That was just a joke. You can smile".

Michael wasn´t so convinced about that. He was a guy, too and he knew what they had in mind all the time. And Kyle was exactly like him and that was the last he wanted for his sister. She deserved someone who would treat her like a princess and respected her. Not someone who wanted to get laid and then he had no further interest. " That was not funny at all. Or would your brother laugh about such a comment?".

Liz, Alex and Maria looked at each other and broke out in laughter. Kyle would definitely not laugh about that. He would probably blow a gasket and pummel the one who dared to say that. He already did that twice and Jim Valenti had to put his own son in a nice cell in the Sheriff Department.

" Why are you laughing? I hope you´re not laughing about me?", Kyle looked from his friends to his sister and then to his roommate. Something was going on and he obviously missed it.

Michael didn´t know what was so funny. But he didn´t like it that they were all laughing about him. What was so bad if he wanted to protect his sister? " Don´t worry. They´re laughing about me".

" What did you do?".

Michael shrugged his shoulders. " Hell if I know".

" I´m sorry. We´re not laughing about you. Really. But you said that about Kyle and we just remembered something", Maria wiped the tears from her face. Oh boy, her stomach would hurt like hell tomorrow with all this laughing.

Alex calmed down enough to say something without it sounding gibberish. " Yeah. You made the same exact face like Kyle when someone just mentions a thought about putting a move on his sister. He already landed in a cell twice because he trashed a few guys, who made nasty comments towards her".

" And I will do it again if I have to", Kyle didn´t feel sorry for these lower beings. They deserved what they got and if his father wouldn´t have interrupted he would have beat them to a bloody pulp.

Michael looked at his roommate and saw him in another light. He was as protective about his sister as he was about his. That was a good sign, because Kyle would treat every girl like he wanted other boys to treat his sister. Maybe it wasn´t so bad to let things between Tess and Kyle progress. Maybe then he had leverage against him when he told him to stay away from Maria again.

Tess finally noticed that she obviously missed something. The most eye catching thing was the added people at their table. When did they appear? And why was her brother smirking so strangly. Oh god, she probably had done something funny. " What´s going on. What did I miss?".

" Welcome back in reality, Tess", Maria really tried to hide her smile. But it was just too hilarious to see the confused face of her roommate. She had been so deep in her thoughts, that she didn´t notice anything going around her. That was so sweet. " You missed nothing interesting. Believe me".

Tess didn´t agree with that. " I don´t think so. I´ve missed the new arrivals".

Maria remembered that she forget to introduce her best friends to her roommate. " Tess, that are my friends from Roswell. This here", she pointed at the girl besides her", is Liz Parker", then she stretched her arm further out and slapped her hand on the thigh of the boy " and that´s Alex Whitman".

Tess smiled at them and nodded at the names. They seemed to be different than Maria and Kyle. It was strange, because it wasn´t normal that the popular kids hung out with geeks. Althrough the both were apparantly very nice and friendly.

" And this guys is my roommate Tess", Maria observed the gesture and the mimic of her friends. She didn´t want any tension between them and her new friend. They would spent much time together and she didn´t need fights. But it didn´t appear that there would be any problems. Slowly she turned her attention to Michael. He was pretty quiet the whole time and didn´t say much. After the two times she bumped into him, she didn´t think he was the brooding kind. Quite the contrary, he seemed to be the loud kind. " And that guy besides her is her brother Michael".

Kyle finally found the time to look at his watch. They should slowly pack their things and go to their classrooms before they would be too late at their first day. " Hey. I don´t want to interrupt this get together. But we should come to an end. It´s almost half past nine".

Immediately everybody moved into action. They took their backpacks and the trays, brought them to the provided car and made their way out. Halfway through the large building the group split up. Kyle and Alex moved towards the right, because their classrooms were in the same corridor. Tess and Liz took the left, while Michael and Maria continued straight forward. They both walked quietly side by side and tried to stare ahead instead of each other.

" What course do you have now?", Maria wasn´t so comfortable with silence. It was strange that she felt so weird in his presence. Like she found some part of her puzzle she didn´t even know she had.

Michael was in thoughts about the girl besides him that he only heard the last part of the sentence. " What?".

" I asked what course do you have", Maria found the guts to glance at him. He was handsome even from the side. She stared at his features and wondered how it must feel to have those lips on her body and what words would come out of this mouth when he was impulsive. Or how his body would feel ontop of hers. Judging after the perfectly fitting white plain t-shirt he was wearing he would feel all hard and manly. Oh hell, was it hot in here or was it just her?

Michael faced her and noticed the look she was giving him. Oh shit, he know that look and the darkening of her eyes. Hopefully he was wrong about that, because he didn´t have the restrain to not throw her on the floor and have his way with her. Nervously he cleared his throat. " I have General Business".

" Me, too", Maria´s eyes widened. That was just great. Now she was horny and had to sit in a classroom with him.

Michael raised his right eyebrow and his usual smirk came again. " That´s great. Maybe we find the time to take a little break together. I mean we could meet at the mens toilets".

Maria threw her hands in the air and groaned out loud. She wanted to be nice and behave like a normal being and he had to be so...so damn arrogant. Why had she even tried to communicate with this walking penis. It was useless and just made her angry. " Could you stop with your pick up lines? I´m not interested".

" Then why were you staring at me like I was the most delicious meal you ever saw in your life?", Michael knew that she wasn´t so indifferent like she pretended. He saw the fire in her eyes and no girl would get rilled up over a comment when there wasn´t an attraction of some sorts.

Maria glared at him, althrough she was more mad at herself for getting caught staring at him. She couldn´t deny that she found him attractive or that she felt something. Like a pull in his direction, a sort of connection. But she would never start something with him. It would just end badly and she didn´t want that again. " Yeah so? You´re good looking and I wanted to enjoy the view. Is that a crime now?".

Michael smiled at the comment. She liked him and she found him good looking. What more could he want? It was just a matter of time before she crumpled and declared her undying love for him. " You want me".

" Forget it. You´re obviously not listening to me", Maria was glad that they finally made it to their classroom. Quickly she scanned the room for a place to sit. She saw a blonde girl sitting alone in the last row and decided to keep her company. Almost running she made her way to her and slumped in the seat besides her. " I hope this seat is not taken".

The girl looked up startled from her notepad and eyed her. " No. Not at all". After that she turned her attention on her notepad again. She was busy with drawing some things on a piece of paper. It didn´t seem to be something for the class actually.

Maria took a closer look and noticed that it was a drawing of clothes. It was pretty and the girl obviously had talent. " What are you doing? If I may ask?".

" Oh it´s just my hobby. I want to be a designer some day and that are my drafts", the girl was a bit surprised about the interest. Nobody paid attention to her doodling usually.

Maria was impressed of them. The girl didn´t look like a designer than rather someone who wore the dresses herself. But the drafts were really good and the clothes appeared like those who would be hanging in her closet. " You´re pretty talented".

The girl smiled at the compliment. It was nice to hear such encouraging words from a stranger. " Thank you. By the way, my name is Isabel Evans".

" Maria Valenti", Maria offered her hand. While she shook hands with Isabel, she finally registered the name. " Oh, you´re the roommate from my best friend Liz".

Isabel was startled for a moment, because she noticed a shudder going through her body when she her skin came in contact with Marias. That never happened before. It was like a awakening from something she had hidden all her life inside herself. Surprise she looked in the eyes of the girl besides her. They were somehow familiar to her. But from where? " What?".

Maria was a little worried. Isabel stared at her like she wanted to see into her soul. And why was this feeling to know her there again? She had the same reaction to Michael and Tess. What was going on here? What happened with her? But before she could utter a word, a presence disturbed the moment between the two girls.

" Why did you disappear so fast? I wasn´t done talking to you", Michael took the place exactly besides Maria. He seemed to take all space with his body.

Maria rolled her eyes at Isabel. Why did he have to sit near her? The room was huge and there were many seats available. But no, he had to take the one besides her. He did that just to annoy her. Slowly she turned her head in his direction and glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. " Do you mind. I´m talking here with someone that doesn´t think with his lower region".

Michael looked down at his baggy´s and then at Maria again. What was she pointing at? That he just thought with his dick? " Is it my fault that you look so hot? I´m a guy and I just say what´s on my mind".

" If that would be the case, you would say nothing", Maria didn´t know why she reacted so strongly as soon as he was close to her. She only had two reactions to people. Either she was friendly or she ignored them. But with Michael it was different. She wasn´t so sure what she should think of him. And then these strange feelings she was having about him.

Michael felt insulted. He wasn´t just a dumb guy, who was putting his move on every girl with a nice set of legs. He had class and not every female was worth of his attention. The girl besides her was pretty gorgeous and he didn´t have any interest in her. That had to mean something. " Now that wasn´t nice of you. I feel really hurt".

Isabel laughed about the two. It was nice to see a relationship with so much love and affection. And it seemed like they both would know each other pretty long, judging after the bickering. She wished she would find exactly a guy like that. A guy who treated her like she was the only one and made her feel special. She was a little jeaulousy. " How long are you two together?".

Marias head snapped to Isabel and her face had lost the bit colour she had before. Now that was an insult. Why did she ask that? " Oh no no no. We´re not together".

" Yeah, at least not yet", Michael put on his smirk and wiggled with his eyebrows.

At that Maria faced him with a dark expression. He´s got a nerve! She was tempted to slug him with Isabels notepad over and over again. How dare he assume something that would never ever happen. Not in this life and not in another. Never!!! " When are you going to stop hitting on me?".

" When you finally admit that you want me".

" That will never happen, so you can find another girl to annoy", Maria had enough from this walking advertisment for becoming a lesbian. How a girl could fell for someone like him was a mystery to her. Even if he was looking like a greek god and kept his mouth shut. Without waiting for a reply she gave her attention Isabel again.

Michael´s smirk turned into a full grin which brightened his complete face. Cockily he stretched his left arm to the side and laid it around Marias shoulders. Then he bent his face close to her ear. " I don´t wanna find another girl. You´re the only one for me".

Maria had to refrain from moaning out loud. He was breathing just on her most sensitive spot behind her ear and it made her inside flutter. For a moment she had to close her eyes to savour that feeling. Oh god, she had to retract her statement about his charme. This guy knew exactly what he was doing. Damn bastard! Now she would sit through class and all this phantasies would play in her mind. How should she concentrate on the teacher? A little embarassed she wiped her face with both of her hands and tried to get her heating cheeks under control. He shouldn´t think she was affected from him. His ego was already big enough.

Michael patted himself mentally on his shoulders. He still had the charme that made women go crazy and let them blush like little school girls. Maria could say what and how often she wanted, but she wasn´t so aversed from him like she pretented. She wanted him and if she said something different a thousand times. But before he could tease her some more, the professor finally made an appearance and started immediately with his lecture.

TBC


	37. Chapter 37

**Chapter 37 Denying doesn´t mean it´s not there**

Maria was pretty wasted and a little pissed off. The whole week at campus was extremly nerve-racking with all this new assignments, the many responsibilities and like that wasn´t enough the daily bickering between her and Michael. He was in almost every class she was in, except for the music and the music education course. And she was pretty thankful for that small gift, because he was a major pain in her ass. He was always trying to get her mad or brushed his hands at a few parts of her body or was just there. If not for Isabel, who shared the same classes with them, she would have already cut something sacred to him off of his body. Maria was so sure that he would lose interest when she just ignored him long enough. But the more she gave him the cold shoulder, the more persistent he became. On a totally crazy way it was kinda sweet and she felt flattered. Sometimes when he wasn´t looking she sneaked a glance in his direction and observed him. He was pretty hard to read. Usually she saw a person and knew exactly what kind of person she or he was. And most of the time she was absolutely right about her assumption. However with Michael it was difficult. The stories Tess told her about him was not the way she saw him. He seemed to be more complexer than she was and that was hard to do. She knew why she was guarding a part of herself from the world. But what was his deal?

" Hey roomie! What´s up?", Tess came through the door to their room with a big smile on her face. Something had happened. Probably something involving her brother. Since they both met each other Kyle was courting her big time. He even sent flowers to her and made her compliments every day.

Maria looked up from her book, which she was supposed to read until Monday for her Management class. " Nothing. You?".

" I´ve got a date in", Tess eyed her watch. " 3 hours".

Now Maria forgot her book and turned her attention to her roommate. " You finally accepted a date with Kyle?".

Tess whole face started to glow and her cheeks got a rosy colour. And her eyes begann to sparkle like two diamonds. " Something like that. It´s not a real date actually".

" What do you mean?", Maria was confused. Tess and Kyle were doing something together. In her book that was a date. But maybe that wasn´t so anymore nowadays. It had been a long time since Maria had a date with someone other than Billy.

Tess slowly walked away from the door and directly towards Maria. A little nervously she stopped in front of her. " Hear me out before you say anything, ok?".

Maria got a bad feeling at that. Now that didn´t sound so great. Oh god, hopefully she was not even having a date with her brother at all. Maybe Tess was going out with some other guy and didn´t know how she should tell her that. Oh poor Kyle. He found finally a girl even she herself liked and now that. " Alright. Shoot".

" I´ve never dated a guy before and I´m pretty nervous because of that. Kyle is my first date. Therefore I suggested a double date", Tess tried not to stutter too much. She played with the hem of her shirt and shuffled with her feet.

Maria didn´t expect that Tess had never dated before. She didn´t seem to kind of girl who seemed to have problems finding a guy. Even Liz had been with someone, even if that didn´t last too long. " Don´t worry. Kyle is easy. You don´t have to do much to impress him. You already have him hooked. Besides I can help you if you want?".

" Yeah that. I wanted you to come with me on this double date".

Maria knew there was more coming. And she already had a hunch that it was something she wouldn´t like. " What aren´t you telling me? Who´s this other guy Kyle is bringing?".

At least Tess had the grace to blush and look into another direction. And she said the only name Maria didn´t want to hear. " Michael".

" No. Absolutely not. No. Did I tell you no already? NO", Maria stood up from her chair and went to the other side of the room. That had to be a joke. Tess couldn´t be serious about the suggestion. A whole evening in close proximity with Michael would only end badly. For both sides. Before the night was over she either had killed him or herself.

Tess followed after her friend and tried to calm her a bit. But that wasn´t so easy considering her out of control condition. " Please Maria. I want you near by. You´re the first friend I made here and I would feel better if you were with me".

Maria turned to roommate and saw the pleading in her eyes. She was almost tempted to cave in, but then she remembered the week with Michael and decided to be strong. " Sorry. Can´t you ask Isabel or someone other? I´m sure there are desperate girls around here, who would gladly go on a date with your brother".

" I don´t want someone other with me. I want you. Besides you know Kyle better than every other here. And he would be there if my brother would try something", Tess wouldn´t give up. She even put on her sad puppie face and hoped that her friend would fall for that. It always worked with her grandfather and her brother.

Maria rubbed her face with her right hand while she thought about the words. Alright, Tess had a point there. And the sad face was weakening her resistance " I´m just doing this under one condition. You don´t let me alone with Michael".

Tess clapped her hands while she squealed pretty loud. Then she embraced a rather startled Maria with a big smile on her face. " Oh thank you, thank you, thank you. You´re the best".

" Yeah. And don´t you forget that when we cart your brother into the hospital tonight if he doesn´t keep his hands to himself", Maria shook her head. What did she get herself into? She was getting soft in her age. Oh great. That would be a night from hell.

Tess released the other girl excitedly and made her way to her closet. She had to find something to wear for tonight. Something that screamed I´m hot, but not easy. Quietly singing a mushy love song, she opened the door and eyed her clothes.

Maria observed her going through her collection of designer shirt´s, tops and skirts. Damn, she must be braindead to agree to a double date with the devil himself. That or she was possessed. Maybe she should look for a priest and tell him to exorcize the evil from her. Oh boy, she already regretted accepting.

**Three hours later**

Tess was in the process to finish her make up. She decided to keep it at a minimum tonight. She just used mascara, a little rouge and a shiny lip gloss, which matched her outfit. She was wearing a pink sundress, which reached to her knees. It wasn´t too extravagant, but also not too casual. It was perfect for a date. Her hair was pinned up with a few little pink clasps and two curly strands were framing her face.

" So. I´m ready. What about you", she looked in the mirror for the last time. She wanted to check if everything was still in its place and if she didn´t forget something.

Maria stepped besides her friend and glanced at her reflection in the mirror. The make up was exactly like she wanted it. Not too much and not too cheap. The hair was falling in light curls around her shoulders. Her clothes were made of a short black skirt and a turquoise neckholder top. " Are we supposed to get them or do they get us?".

Just as Tess wanted to open her mouth, there was a knock. " Question answered?", without waiting she went to the door and opened it. Immediately she started to smile over her complete face when she was greeted with the sight of flowers in front of her face. " Hey".

Kyle dropped the hand with the white tulips. " Hey".

Maria rolled her eyes at them. They were behaving like two high school kids on their first date. Great now she was stuck with these two lovebirds, who made her sick to her stomach with their flirting and Michael. Maybe they wouldn´t notice when she just stayed behind. Besides she didn´t see her supposed date with her brother. Hopefully he finally realised that it wasn´t a great idea to go out with her.

" Hey gorgeous".

Oh damn. Now there flew her hopes right out of the window. Michael stepped out behind Kyle with a beautiful bunch of daisies, her favourite flowers in his hands. How did he even know that she liked those? For a moment she was pretty impressed about the fact that he made an effort to buy her something she liked. And he wasn´t dressed like usual. He traded his richy rich outfit for a more collegeboy style. Which meant he wore black jeans and a nice dark blue shirt " Hey".

Kyle ignored the two and focused his attention completely on Tess. He eyed her clothes and how nice they clung to her. " You look beautiful".

" You´re not so bad yourself Mr. Valenti", Tess let her gaze wander over his body. The blue jeans was finally not two sized too big, instead fit him really well. The shirt was just black and he even let the first two buttons open, so that you could see his white t-shirt underneath.

Michael observed his roommate and decided to try to use his charm, too. But before he could even open his mouth Marias hand shoot forward. " Don´t even try it".

" What?".

Maria knew what he wanted to do and she didn´t want to hear something about her appearance right now. It wasn´t a real date. She was just doing a favour for a friend. And if he started to act all mushy now she had to drag him with her to a priest. He wasn´t like that and she accepted that. " Just don´t say anything".

" These are for you. Michael told me that you liked tulips", finally Kyle remembered the flowers in his hands and gave them Tess, who immediately smelled them.

" Thank you. Their really nice", she was touched about that gesture. Nobody had her brought any flowers before. And then even her favourites.

Michael looked at the daisies in his hands and was afraid to give them Maria. He didn´t want to be slapped with them or even worse was forced to eat them. He thought she was okay with this arrangement. But she seemed like she rather wanted to be somewhere else than here. Tess told him that Maria agreed to the double date and everything. And now it looked like it would be a hell of an evening. " Actually these are for you. But I´m scared that you will beat me with them. Is it alright with you if I give you the flowers?".

Maria bit the inside of her cheek to refrain from smiling at him. It was so cute how unsure she made him without even threatening him with bodily harm. " Yes. Your safe for now".

Michael breathed out in relief. Carefully he stretched his arm out, always on the lookout just in case she got the idea to rip his arm off of his body and handed her the flowers over. Maria followed the example of her friend and smelled them. She loved daisies, because they had an unique scent, which seemed to calm her.

" If we still want to decide what movie we´re watching we should get a move on", Kyle had planned out the whole evening and he didn´t accept a delay in his plans. Slowly he offered Tess his hand. She of course took it and they both walked together away.

Michael looked at Maria with a smirk on his face and a raised eyebrow. She instantly picked up the message and just groaned out loud before she stepped around him on her way out the door. After the room was empty, the telephone started ringing. A minute later the answering machine picked it up.

" _This is the room of Tess and Maria. We´re not here at the moment. Obviously. Leave a message and we´ll get back at ya. Beep"_

" Maria get on the phone. It´s me Lindsey. It´s important. Billy called today and asked for you. Dad told him where you are and he´s on his way there. Damn where are you?". Click.

**In front of the movie theatre**

The two couples stood in front of the bright flashing building and looked at the big posters, which announced the movies playing right now. There was one with Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie besides that was one with a big X and the actors and actesses in the front, after that followed one with Vin Diesel, then one with David Duchovny and Minnie Driver and the last was one with Sean William Scott and Tom green.

" So and what are we gonna watch?", if Kyle had a say, he would watch Road Trip. But it wasn´t a good movie for a date with a girl.

Tess eyed the picture with David Duchovny. The movie sounded really great. " I want Return to me".

Michael and Maria groaned both at the same time. Surprised they looked at each other and smiled. Obviously they weren´t so keen on the suggestion.

" What do you want to see?", Kyle asked the other pair. Hopefully they would vote for something not so sappy, because he wasn´t so delighted to watch a chick flick. Even if he wanted to impress Tess.

Maria´s eyes were glued to X-men. She had loved the cartoons and she wanted to see if the movie was as good as the series. But then she looked at the one with Nicholas Cage. She liked the actor and she was crazy after fast cars and stunts. " I can´t decide between Gone in 60 seconds and X-men".

Michael´s head snapped in her direction. He was in the same dilemma at the moment. He couldn´t choose between the movies himself. It was a hard decision. Either they picked mutants or hot cars. " I´m with Maria".

" Great. Now what?", Tess thought that at least Maria was on her side and they would see Return to me. She wanted to see that movie.

" Alright. How about you and Kyle watch the chick flick while Michael and I check out the hot wheels in Gone in 60 seconds?", it was a fair trade. She could see the movie she wanted, even if she had to go with her nemesis and her brother was punished for agreeing with that arrangement tonight.

Tess whole face broke out in a smile. " Thank you. We´ll see each other later".

Kyle glared at his sister before he was dragged away from his date. Maria even winked after him with a mean twinkle in her eyes. She couldn´t wait to hear how the movie was. At least when her brother could stay awake through it. And she could tease him that she saw something that wasn´t about love and pain, but about action, sex and fast cars.

" You´re mean, you know that?", Michael had pity with his roommate. Two hours watching a couple dance around each other until they finally found the guts to declare their undying love for another. What a piece of crap. Unconditional or true love was only existing in movies and never in real life.

Maria faced him with a a small smile playing around her lips. " What? Don´t tell me you wanted to see Return to me?".

The expression on Michael´s face was priceless. It was a mix between fear and shock. " Oh god no. Do I look gay?".

Maria eyed him from head to toe. She took her time to look at him properly and she didn´t left something out. Her eyes wandered from his spikey head down to his manly chest then further to his well built belly. She lingered a little longer at his crotch and continue down to his athletic legs until she stopped at his large feets. After that she did the same the other way around until she looked in his darkened eyes again. " I don´t know how a gay man looks, so I can´t give you an answer to that question".

Michael was close to lose it in his pants. The regarding she did to his body was like a caressing. He could practically feel it on his skin and on the inside. He had to do everything not to moan loudly. Damn this woman would either be the death of him or heaven on earth. He wet his suddenly dry lips. " Maybe we should go inside before it´s too late".

" Fine", Maria pressed her lips tightly together before she broke out in laughter. Now she showed him what it feels like to be treated like an object. Slowly she walked into the movie theatre without looking if Michael was following her.

**2 hours later**

Tess and Kyle were already standing outside when the other two were joining them. Michael and Maria seemed to have enjoyed the movie and they were talking about it with so much fun. A strange contrast to the picture from hours ago, when it looked like they wouldn´t get along through a whole evening.

" So it looks like you had fun?", Tess was glad that they both were not glaring at each other or bickering like usual.

Maria turned to her friend with a happy expression on her face. " Yeah. The movie was really great and those cars. I got hot just looking at them".

" Yeah. Especially when Eleanor appeared", Michael added. He didn´t see so much from the movie actually. He was too busy observing his companion the whole time and it was nice to see a other side from her. She wasn´t her bitchy self like she normal was. And he was more determined now to get to know her better.

Maria smiled at him. " That is out of question".

Tess and Kyle turned to each other confused. What were they both talking about? Didn´t they watch a action movie? But who was Eleanor? Was it the main character? " Eleanor?".

" Oh, they were giving the cars names and there was a shelby 500 GT Mustang which Memphis called Eleanor. It was a car worth drooling for", Maria would love to sit in this hot wheel and drive over the highway with full speed. It had to be the best feeling ever.

Michael nodded with his head. He loved his car, but the mustang was a classic. " And how was your movie?".

Tess sighed happily. The movie had been sad, funny and romantic to no end. It was the best she ever saw. Except for Titanic, Message in a bottle and city of angels. " Absolutely great. I could watch it again".

Kyle just shook his head and made gagging gesture behind her back. He would rather have his ball removed without narcosis and with a blunt knife than seeing this shit again. He couldn´t understand why all women were so crazy after such tearjerkers. The movie was dripping that it wasn´t funny anymore. He had to do everything in his powers to stay awake. " Well, the movie was... interesting. Nothing I ever seen so far".

" I bet", Maria couldn´t keep her laughter in. Poor Kyle, had to watch a chick flick with no action or gunfire. Contrary to her and Michael, who had the pleasure to see cars jumping through the air, wild chases and much much shootings.

Michael turned his head to the right to hide his smile. He was glad not to have been in Kyle´s shoes during the movie. He would have bored himself to death or someone would have had to wake him because of his loud snoring. Thankfully Maria wasn´t the type of girl who loved it sappy.

Tess watched confused how her roommate laughed her ass off and her brother tried to hide the fact that he was smiling. Did she miss something here? Suspiciously she faced Kyle, who was standing slightly behind her. He was glaring at Maria and Michael. What was going on? " What is so damn funny?".

" Nothing", Maria wiped the tears from her face and tried not to smudge her make up too much in the process. " Hey, is anybody else hungry?".

" Yeah I could eat something", Kyle rubbed his belly with his right hand. Although he ate almost of the popcorn and drank a huge cup of coke, he was still hungry.

Michael didn´t have to think twice about question. He could always eat. " I´m game".

Now that Tess thought about food, she noticed her stomach growling. She had been too nervous to get something down the whole day and now she was starving. " Count me in".

" Now we only have to look for a place that´s still open and serves decent food", Maria didn´t know Las Cruces that much. She and her family was passing through the town a few times. But she didn´t exactly pay attention to the streets then.

Michael thought he saw a little restaurant a few feets away from the movie theatre when they drove here. " I saw something a little further down the street".

" Alright. Then let´s go", Kyle took Tess by the hand and they started walking in the direction Michael pointed.

Maria watched them both with a little envy. They looked absolutely adorable together. She missed the starting time of a new relationship when everything was still new and a mystery. When you could hug the whole world and you walked around with a big smile on your face. When the birds would only sing their songs for you and the flowers smelled even better, the sun only shone for you and you had a reason to stand up in the morning. Suddenly she was thrown out of her thoughts. Michael had nudged her with his shoulder.

" What´s up? Is everything alright?".

Maria shook her head to clear it. It was silly to think about such things. Real love only existed in those mushy love movies and never in reality. " Yeah. I was just watching Romeo and Juliet".

Michael looked to Tess and Kyle, which were in a deep conversation. His sister even laughed about something his roommate said. It was nice to see that they both were happy. Even if he wasn´t so keen on the fact that they both would start something. After all she was his sister and he didn´t want that anybody hurt her in any way. " They seem to really hit it off".

" Yeah", Maria wished sometimes she could be as carefree like her brother and not be so guarded all the time like she was now. Alright, she had a reason to be careful, but it would be nice to just be herself from time to time. " We should follow them or they´ll start eating without us".

Michael noticed that something was going on with her. There was such a sadness in her eyes and something else that he couldn´t decipher right now. What was her deal? But to prevent to disturb the truce they had going at the moment he decided not to ask. So without a word they both made their way after Kyle and Tess.

Half an hour later they finally found a place called " Dick´s Restaurant". It didn´t look too shabby and not too expensive. There were many college students and teenager from high school standing at a blue painted counter. Here and there sat elderly couples at the grey tables and ate their food while they talked to each other. It made the impression of a 50´s café on a Friday night.

" Are we going in there or not?", it was slowly getting colder and Maria forgot her jacket in her room. And she was almost starving.

Tess, who had the same problem at the moment, didn´t reply something. Instead she opened the door and stepped into the restaurant. She had no desire to stay the complete evening in the cold, when she could sit in a nice, warm building.

Kyle and Michael looked at each other and then followed her. Maria rolled her eyes at them and did the same. Immediately when she was inside the smell of fried french fries and grilled meat was waving in her nose. The air was filled with talking people and the clacking of dishes. A little smile broke out on her face. It felt like coming home. In her high school time she worked at the crashdown, a restaurant on mainstreet, which Liz´s father owned. It was practically her second home and she learned everything important there.

" Hey! There´s still a free table", Tess was boxing her way through the mass of sweating bodies and even stepped on a few toes to get them out of her way. For such a small girls she was pretty strong. But in the end she instantly stormed at the table and sat on one of the blue chairs.

Michael, Kyle and Maria joined her after a few seconds. Relieved that they finally sat and that they made it through this crowd with all their limbs still there where they were supposed to be.

Kyle took the menu immediately and eyed it. He was extremely hungy now and he wanted something greasy and with much much calories. And he made a find withing seconds. " I´ll take a cheeseburger with french fries and a big coke".

Maria thought that it didn´t sound too bad. She could do a burger. " I´ll order the same, but without the coke. I´ll take a iced tea instead".

" That´s sounds good. I´ll take the same", Tess hadn´t eaten something that wasn´t cooked from a french chief cook in a long while and she was relieved that these times were over. One more pigeon in a mint sauce and she would have puked all over the nice table.

Michael took the menu from Kyle and looked at it. But nothing was appealing to him. " Alright. I´ll join with Kyle".

Just as he finished the sentence, an older waitress with grey hairs, which were bound to a tight bun, a friendly face with too much make up and a body that looked like it was as wide as high, stepped at their table. She seemed to be annoyed and not in the greatest mood. But she was still politely, even if she didn´t look like she would have fun at her job. Like a roboter she asked them what they wanted. When she had the order from the four she walked slowly back to the kitchen. Tess and Maria turned to each other and smiled. But before they could start a conversation, the waitress came back with their drinks and put them on their table.

" The food comes later", with that she took her little tray and trudged away.

Kyle bent forward on his chair and took his glass. " I think she has the wrong job".

Maria sipped at her iced tea and enjoyed the cool drink. She had been thurstier than she thought. She just wanted to reply something, when she noticed her cellphone ringing in her purse. Curious who would call call her at this time, she took it out and eyed the display. It was Liz. " Hey chica, what´s up".

" _...here...I was...and then...I told...on his..."._

Maria tried to understand something. But she just understood a few words through the noise around her. But after the paniced state her friend seemed to be in, it had to be something important. " Liz, I didn´t understand a thing you just said. Wait a minute", Maria stood up from her chair and faced the others at the table. " Excuse me for a moment". With her cellphone in her hand she walked through the crowd again and stopped at the front door, where she found a quiet place. " So and now tell me again what happened".

" _Billy is here. I saw him when I was on my to Alex. I was totally shocked and tried to pass him quickly. But he regnorized me. He asked me where you are. I told him that you were on a date with a guy. He was pretty pissed and I think he is on his way to look for you"._

Maria was stunned about this information. What was Billy doing here? How did he even know where she was? That wasn´t good news. It could get really ugly when he found her. A little shaken she massaged her forehead. What should she do when they would meet each other? Suddenly a shadow in front of the window drew her attention to it. Carefully she looked up and saw Billy standing there with an angry glare directed at her. Shit. " He found me, Liz".

TBC


	38. Chapter 38

**Chapter 38 Reaching a common level**

Maria was still standing at her spot and stared to the boy in front of the window like she would see a ghost. Damn, how did Billy found her so fast? She hadn´t expected that he would drive all the way to Las Cruces to look for her. She counted on an angry phone call or maybe a heavy argumentation when she came home for a holiday. But never did she think for a moment he would visit her. She thought it was over between them. He said that if she should attent to college, he didn´t want to see her ever again in his life. It was the worst fight they had so far and they both said things that were pretty hurtful to each other. Things they couldn´t take back again. If she was honest, their relationship was already finished before that. They just changed and went in different directions. Billy wanted to tingle through the world with a backpack on his shoulders and his guitar around his neck. Maria wanted to make more of her life. She wanted a career and someday a family, things everybody wished for. But she couldn´t do that with him. He was always trying to change her or make her somebody she wasn´t. Now she took ahold of her life and made her own decisions. She was sorry for the way they parted, but not for doing it. It was the best thing she ever did so far and she didn´t regret it.

" _Maria. Are you still there? Hello? Say something?MARIA!!!!"._

Maria startled out of her thoughts when she heard the high pitched scream of her best friend. She almost forgot her. " Sorry Liz. I´ll call you back later", she clapped her cellphone closed and put it back in her purse, before she made her way outside.

She was extremely nervous and she had to breath deeply in. Slowly she opened the door and stepped in the cold night. Billy was standing with his arms crossed over his chest in front of her and his posture appeared threatenly. His usually brown eyes were sparkling almost black and his lips were just a thin line.

" Hey Billy. What are you doing here?", alright, that was a silly question, but Maria didn´t know how to act now. Should she be friendly or pissed off or what?

Billy changed his position and let his arms hang at his sides. " I could ask you the same question. What are you doing here?".

" I told you that I wanted to go to college and I did", Maria wouldn´t back down this time. She gave in most of the time when they fought, but not now. Her life didn´t go after his mind anymore. She was old enough to make her own decisions. Period.

Billy stepped closer to her and his glare got meaner. " And you didn´t think you have to tell me that fact? I had to hear it from your father, who had extremly pleasure in telling me that I shouldn´t call anymore".

" I´m sorry about that. But you made absolutely clear what you thought about me going to college and I just wanted to avoid another argument about this topic. Besides we were mad at each other in case you forgot", Maria didn´t let herself effect from his dark vibes, which were shooting from him in waves. But she knew that she had to be careful with him. He wasn´t exactly Mr. Nice Guy and although he had never laid a hand on her, she wasn´t so sure if he would still stick to that any longer.

Billy shook his head. She was doing it again. She was trying to lay all the blame on his shoulders. " Believe me, I didn´t forget our little fight. But I thought we would cool down before we spoke to each other again. However I didn´t even had the chance to talk to you, because you left town without informing me".

Maria started to get really mad at him. Fine, she made a mistake, she knew that. But he didn´t have to rub it in all the time. Oh god, it was her first mistake and he made such a fuss about that. He in contrast made millions of mistakes and she always forgave him every single one. " I said I was sorry about that. What more do you want to hear?".

" That you´re coming home with me and you forget this college crap".

Maria stared at him shocked. Now she finally knew his reason for driving all this way here. He wanted to drag her back to Roswell and make her his little wife again. But this time he would bang his head against a brick wall. She would never do what he wanted from her again. This times were over. " You won´t ever hear that words from me. I´m staying here and if you have a problem with that then that´s your problem not mine".

Billy reacted immediately. He grasped her shoulders forcefully and pretty hurtfull with his hands. " You´re coming with me and that´s final".

Maria struggled against his hold on her. Something in his eyes scared her. He wasn´t himself right now and she feared he would do something stupid. " Let me go".

" No. Not until you agree to come with me", Billy tightened his grip on her. He didn´t care if he hurt her in the process or not. He wanted her at his side and not somewhere else, where he didn´t see what she was doing and with who.

Maria had tears in her eyes from the pain, which were shooting through her shoulders. Billy´s fingernails were digging in her flesh and it hurt. She knew that she was stronger than he was and she could put him down without using her limbs. But she was scared that she would kill him in this moment. Suddenly the tricks her teacher in her self defence class showed her popped into her head. With a swift move she kicked her knee in his crotch and he let her go instantly. After that she put her fist directly at his nose. With satisfaction she heard bones break under her hand.

" You bitch", Billy was kneeling on the ground and held both of his hands in front of his nose. Some of his blood spilled through his fingers and trailed down his mouth.

Maria smiled at him. It wasn´t healthy to piss her off and now he knew that. Maybe he remembered that the next time he tried such a stunt again. " So Billy. I have two options for you. Either you pick option A, you take part of your still existing dignity with you back to Roswell and leave me alone or you pick option B, I will kick the living shit out of you"

Billy glanced up from his position on the hard ground. " You forgot option C".

" There´s no option C", what was he talking about? And why was he smiling like a lunatic? She was under the impression he finally understood her message. But it appeared he didn´t..

Billy stood up and wiped the blood from his face with his sleave. Slowly he advanced towards her. " I think there is. The option where I will kick the living shit out of you until you beg to come home with me".

Maria stepped carefully back from him. He wouldn´t hurt or, would he? She looked into his eyes and noticed for the first time that they were hollow. There wasn´t anything in them, just this void. The only thing she could see in them was her own reflection. That was strange. " You won´t do it. You´re not man enough for that".

Before she could react, Billy´s hand shot forward and hit her right cheek with the force of a bus. Her head twirled to the left side and seconds later she felt her legs giving away under her. Without having the chance to stop it, she crashed face first onto the pavement. Shocked and disappointed she turned her body around and glanced at him. He had done it. He really had hit her? Her cheek was hurting pretty bad and she could already picture how it would look tomorrow. Great, how should she explain that to Kyle?

Suddenly a person stormed out of the restaurant and went straight to Billy. Without warning the person punched his face over and over again with his fist. " YOU BASTARD!".

Maria watched the scene with a mix of relieve and fear. She hadn´t regnorized the person at first, but now she had a pretty good view on him. Her first thought was that it had to be Kyle. But she quickly realized it was Michael, who came to her rescue.

" If I see you ever again how you lay just one finger on Maria, I will take your f head and bang it against a wall until your brain will explode from the force!", to reinforce his point Michael took Billy´s head and pushed it on the sidewalk. Near them the windows from a few cars exploded into million pieces, alarm system went crazy and parking meters shoot coins out.

Maria watched the chaos around her. What was happening here? Did her powers go out of control without her noticing it? But why didn´t she feel anything then? And why felt it so familiar to her? However her thoughts were interrupted when she turned to the fight. Billy didn´t look like he would make it any longer . " Michael, stop it! You´re killing him!".

Michael paused when he heard her voice and everything acting crazy stopped. Startled he looked at the beaten person lying at his feet and then at his blood smeared hands. What had gotten into him to go postal on someone he even didn´t know? Why did the thought of anybody hurting Maria anger him so much that he would kill someone? He didn´t know what happened with him, but it scared him that he couldn´t even remember doing anything after he saw this guy slapping her. The worst part of this was his powers, which he hadn´t under control for a few seconds. He was always so careful to keep them hidden and now he blew his cover. Slowly he turned around to Maria and looked into her eyes. He was afraid what he would see in them. Disgust, horror or even fear. But all he could detect was a little shock and surprise. Suddenly movement from the corner of his eyes drew his attention back to the hurt guy, which finally made it back on his feet, although it appeared that his legs weren´t able to carry his weight. His face looked like a painting from picasso, at least at the time when he was on drugs.

" You just signed your sentence of death. I swear that you will regret ever laying a hand on me".

Michael made a threatening step forward and lifted his fist again. " Give me one reason and I will kill you!".

Billy started to smile, which looked a little scary, because his white teeth were a stark contrast to his bloody face. " You couldn´t do it the first time and you can´t do it now".

Michael´s expression changed from angry to confused. What was this nutcase talking about? What first time? Did they meet already and he couldn´t remember it? But he wouldn´t forget such an ugly face ever. " Have we met before?".

" Yeah. Someday you will remember it. And believe me, I hope I will be there to witness it", with that Billy disappeared into the darkness.

Immediately after that Michael turned to Maria and went to her shaking form. Without thinking he embraced her tightly and pressed her at his body. She was ice cold and probably freezing. Slowly he rubbed her arms to warm her a bit. But he was sure that the weather was just partly the reason for her condition. Carefully he stepped a little back and saw into her face. " Are you alright?".

Maria´s eyes were slowly filling with tears and her lower lip started to tremble slightly. " Yes. I´m just a little upset".

Michael winced when he saw the purple area on her cheek, where she was hit. It looked really painful and it would probably hurt more tomorrow. How could a man hit a woman like that? He had done a lot of stupid things in his life, but one thing he learned from his grandfather. Never hit a woman. And he would stick to that until he died. " I´ll bring you home".

" No. You don´t have to do that", Maria didn´t want to be treated like a damsel in distress. It wasn´t like she hadn´t provoked the slap. It was her fault that she received a bruise. After all she started the fight.

Michael smiled at her. Why wasn´t he surprised that she would be stubborn about that? " I´ll go back to the other two and tell them that you´re not feeling well and after that I will drive you to your room and I don´t accept a no".

Maria tried to make her risible muscles work, but every little movement from her cheek hurt like hell. Instead she made an attempt to get the message with her eyes across to Michael. " Thank you".

" You stay here. I´ll be back in a minute", Michael squeezed her hand and then made his way inside the restaurant. Thankfully the crowd cleared a little and he was at the table within seconds. The food was already standing on it. Tess and Kyle were in a deep conversation while they ate their burgers. The instant Michael appeared at the table, they both looked up.

" Oh my god! What happened?", Tess saw the blood on his hands and stood up immediately to check her brother for any kind of injury.

Michael took the wandering hands of his sister and pushed them away. " I´m fine. Just a little incident. I´m just here to tell you that I´ll bring Maria back to the dorms. She´s not feeling too well right now".

At this Kyle jumped to his feets. " What´s going on? Did you hurt her? Where is she?".

If the situation wouldn´t be so serious Michael would have laughed. He knew this reaction too good. " Nothing. I didn´t hurt her and she´s outside".

Tess wasn´t so convinced about that. There had to be something gone wrong or her brother wouldn´t be so concerned. She hadn´t seen him like that ever. For the first time she noticed that he finally found a girl he cared for like he did for her.

" I should go to her. She probably needs me right now", Kyle was in the process to walk away. He wanted to see for himself that she was well and not lying somewhere hurt.

Michael grasped his arm and stopped him. " She wants you to finish your date. Don´t worry, I will take care of her".

Kyle looked in the eyes of his roommate. A few days ago, he wouldn´t have trusted him to take care of his sister. But now after he got to know him better, there wasn´t anyone, besides Alex he would trust more with Maria. Besides there was something in Michael´s eyes that told him that his sister was in good hands. " Alright. But if something happens, call me".

" Sure thing", Michael took his jacket, which hung over his chair, threw a few dollars on the table for their uneaten food, gave his sister a kiss on her cheek and handshaked Kyle. " Have fun. But not too much".

After that he quickly made his way out again. Thankfully Maria was still there when he stepped into the cold. She was hugging her body and shivering. At first she didn´t see him, because she was too busy observing the scenery. Michael didn´t think twice before he took his jacket and laid it over his shoulders.

Startled Maria twirled around. She hadn´t noticed that he was standing behind her. She had been deep in thoughts about the fight with Billy. She couldn´t get her head around the fact that he raised his hand against her. She knew he was the worst boyfriend, but that was low even for him.

" Are you ready to go?", Michael was a pretty worried about her. She was quiet and that wasn´t a good sign. She was always so full of live with a touch of sarcasm when they met each other in class. But this girl in front of him lacked this things. She was pale and her eyes lost the twinkle he adored so much.

Maria pulled the jacket tighter around her and instantly she smelled the scent which she always linked with Michael. It was a touch of musk and cool water from davidoff. " Yeah".

Michael laid his hand tenderly on her back and walked her to his car. He was very careful and watched every step if she would make it to their destination. Her legs didn´t appear to be stable at the moment and he didn´t want her to crash to the ground. When they finally sat in the car and where on their way back to college, Maria let her tears fall. She was crying silently and it broke Michael´s heart to see her that way. He was so used that she was strong and loud and didn´t back down from him. But now he finally saw the person she was underneath her mask she was hiding behind. He wanted so much to say something fitting. However he didn´t know what was appropiate in this moment. He was always so clumsy in such things. He hated crying girls, because he felt helpless to do anything to cheer them up. Sometimes he wished he were more sensitive or just a normal guy.

" I´m sorry".

Michael was startled for a moment when he heard Maria´s voice. It wasn´t that she spoke really loud, because it was just a whisper. It was the fact that she opened her mouth at all. Confused he faced her. " For what?".

Maria wiped the tears from her face. Now that she could think clearer, she felt ashamed for crying like a baby. She wasn´t someone who showed her feelings so openly in front of others, but maybe it was the smell of Michael´s jacket or just his presence that let her guard down for a few minutes. Now she had her emotions under control again and put her walls back up. " For behaving like a child and for getting you involved into my problems".

" You don´t have to be sorry for anything, because you didn´t involve me into anything I didn´t want. I interfered of my own free will. And you didn´t behave like a child. It´s not childish to let your feelings out. To be honest I expected that you would cry a little sooner", Michael didn´t know why she was so strange about something so usual like expressing their emotions. He saw his sister cry over silly things like a movie or even a dead animal more often. Maria on the contrary had a really good reason for her tears. But when he thought about, he didn´t even know the reason for the fight. " I know, it really isn´t my business and you can decide to tell me something or not, but I just want to know if something like that happened before?".

Maria turned her face to the right and watched out of the window to the buildings they passed. There were still people on the way. Couples, friends and even families. Slowly she sighed. " No. Billy had never raised a hand against me. Well until tonight", she made a little pause. She thought about all the time they fought and the times they were so in love that it was already scary. " I know he wasn´t the perfect boyfriend and you can ask Liz or Kyle or even Alex and they would tell you all the same. But I was young and naive when I met him. Until I knew him I was an all american girl. Cheerleader, the perfect daughter, good in school and popular. Then one day I met Billy at a party in the gymnasium. He was the exact opposite from me. He was rude, loud and he didn´t care what others thought of him. He was a musician and what was more important three years older than me. I was pretty impressed and tried the whole evening to observe him. Unfortunately I lost him in the crowd after a while. A little sad I went outside for fresh air. And there he stood. Against the wall with a smoke in his hand and a charming smile on his face".

Michael took his gaze from the front for a minute and watched her. Until now the story didn´t sound so unusual. It was a normal high school romance. Billy sounded exactly like himself in high school. He was the bad boy from his school. Every girl wanted to date him, because he seemed to be untouchable. " And what happened?".

" Billy asked if I wanted a cigarette. But I told him that I didn´t smoke. One thing lead to another and we started dating. I began to change. I skipped school, I went to parties on weekdays, I lied to my parents and more than once my father had to get me from the police station. When I think back about that now, I can´t understand why I did most of these things. Maybe it was because I was young and stupid or my way of rebelling against my parents, I don´t know. But someday I woke up and I didn´t like the person I was becoming anymore. That was the point in my life, where I started to get a grip on my life again and began to become the girl I was before. Billy was completely against my wishes and we fought more often. Then I got the acceptance letter from the university of Las Cruces. I was so happy that I could go to college and make something out of myself. Unfortunately Billy had a different oppinion about that and he threatened that if I would attent there, it would be over between us. But this time I didn´t care about him and now I´m here", Maria didn´t actually know why she told Michael everything. He probably didn´t want to know that much about her. But it felt good to tell it someone who didn´t know her or her relationship with Billy so much.

Michael had listened very intently to all the things she told him. He couldn´t understand that such guys were still excisting. Maria was such a special girl and he couldn´t get his head around the fact, that someone could treat her so bad. He was really glad to gave Billy a new look and he wasn´t sorry for beating the shit out of him. " You made the right decision. You should be relieved to be away from him. Because if he would have loved you, he would have respected your wishes. We all make crazy things when we´re in love. But there are boundaries and they shouldn´t be crossed".

Maria spun her head around surprised. She was stunned that he thought like that. She was under the impression he was the same kind of men. But she was glad, that she was wrong about that, because if she wanted or not, she liked him. " Yeah. But I have to admit I´m not faultless myself. I should have told Billy that I would go to college and not just disappear without a word. I should have given him the option to part on friendly terms".

" As far as I could understand what you told me, he took this decision out of your hands when he told you that it was over if you go to college. Your not at fault here. If someone should be blamed then it´s Billy and not you", Michael didn´t know where the words were coming from. He didn´t even know that he was capable of that. He never had a true conversation with a girl he had the hots for. Usually he charmed them until they went home with him and the next day he told them some excuses. After that he never saw them again. But with Maria it was different. He wanted to know her better, wanted to know everything about her. " And show me one person without faults. They don´t exist. Even I have my faults".

Maria acted shocked and looked at him with wide eyes. One hand flew to her breast. " No really? I wouldn´t have expected that".

" You´re really funny. You should get your own television show with that humour", inwardly Michael was pretty relieved that Maria was slowly coming out of her sadness. He liked her more when she was happy or in her case sarcastic. It wasn´t even half an hour, but he had missed her spirit.

Maria protruded her tongue and made a face at him. She was feeling a little better now and she had to thank Michael for that. She was pretty surprised what a great listener and observer he could be. Her first impression of him seemed not to be the right one. Maybe she should rethink her opinion about him. " You know what? That sounds great. I should send a video to every huge television station in america. Of course you have to be in it, too, because I´m only funny when you´re near me".

" Gee thanks. I don´t know if I should be offended or honoured right now", although Michael acted hurt, he had to chuckle at the thought of a video with them in it. They would get nothing right, that was for sure. They couldn´t be together in one classroom full of people without bickering and then they should stay in a small room with just the two of them?

Maria couldn´t contain her laughter any longer. He was so cute when he got mad. Even if it was just a show. She was tempted to pinch his cheeks, but she could control herself just in time. He shouldn´t think she found him cute or something. " I would go with honoured in your case. It´s not everyday that you get a compliment for your personality".

Thankfully Michael was saved to shoot something back, because they finally arrived at the campus. Immediately he got out of the car and waited for his date to hop out. After that they walked to the girls dorms. The whole way there, they didn´t utter a word. It was like they realised that it was nearing the end of their evening and neither of the two knew what they should do then. Michael was not sure if he should kiss her or not. On the one hand, he really wanted to do it. But on the other, he didn´t want to scare her away. Maria meanwhile had almost the same thoughts floating around in her head. Would he try to kiss her and she would let him or would he try to kiss her and she would stop him? However their thoughts were interrupted, because they came to Marias room.

" It was a nice evening", Maria was standing with her back to the door and looked up at Michael. She didn´t know how to act or how she should act in a situation like that. It wasn´t everyday that a boy played hero and defended a girl he barely knew. " And I want to thank you for what you did tonight".

Michael let his gaze wander to the floor and he shuffled nervously with his feet. He hadn´t done anything unusual. Every other man in his position would have done the same thing. " You don´t have to thank me for anything. It was nothing. I couldn´t even prevent that you got hurt", to prove his point he stretched his arm out and stroked tenderly the hurt spot on her cheek. It was slightly swollen and red. He wished he could do something to ease her pain.

Maria closed her eyes and enjoyed the light caress on her skin. She sensed something she never felt before in her life. It was like this was the man she was supposed to be together, like they were meant to be, like something in her regnorized something in him. A wonderful warmth was growing inside her and spread through her body. Suddenly she noticed that Michael was pulling her face closer. She could smell his scent and feel his breath on her face. Strangly she wasn´t nervous or scared. For a few seconds she waited until she could feel his soft lips against hers. At first it was a light brush, which turned into something passionate within seconds. Michael used now his other hand to pull her body tightly against his and keep her there. Both were so lost in this sensation that they forgot everything around them. But then something really strange happened. Maria could see a picture from two little children, which were crying over something. After that followed a picture from the same kids in black clothes at a grave. An older man was standing besides them and one of his hands was on the girls shoulder. Suddenly the picture changed again and now she finally regnorized the children. It weren´t just pictures but memories from Michael. Shocked she wanted to pull back, because she felt like she would steal something from him. However something caught her eye. It was a memory in which he let something explode just with a flick of his hand. Meanwhile Michael experienced the same. He saw a boy climbing on a tree and a girl screaming at him that he shouldn´t do it. Curious Michael observed the scene. Then he watched how the boy flew in the direction of the ground. Before he could react, the boy stopped in midair. Startled he eyed the girl with her outstretched hands and finally realised who she was. It was Maria.

Simultanously Michael and Maria pulled back from each other and stared stunned at the other. After that they both said the same at the same time. " You´re like me".

TBC


	39. Chapter 39

**Thankx RedJewel2662 for your nice feedback. Billy is not possessed so much I can tell you.**

**Chapter 39 Surprising revelations**

Maria and Michael were sitting opposite each other on the beds in the dorm room. They decided it was better to talk about their discovery in private, far away from prying ears. It would be a strange conversation anyway and they wanted to keep the weird factor to a minimum. Nervously they were staring at each other and they both hoped the other would finally make the first move. But no one knew how to start such a talk. Maria played with the hem of her top while Michael brushed his hands through his hair constantly. They both were pretty confused about everything and that their bruises had disappeared without doing anything hadn´t helped either.

" Did something like that happen before?", Maria was so sick of this silence. She felt uncomfortable if nobody spoke.

Michael blinked startled. He didn´t expect this question. " Did what happen before?".

Maria stopped wrapping her top around her finger and tried to find the right words to describe the thing that happend between them. " Did you get memories from other girls when you kissed them?".

Michael shook his head. That was the first time he saw anything and the other person could see into his head. At least he thought that, because not one of the girls he dated said anything about something strange happening. " No. You´re my first".

" Do you know what you are or why you´re so different?", Maria had searched everything she could find about gifted persons and didn´t find anything. Even the books in the UFO-Center were no help at all. Until now she thought she was the only one with these powers and she accepted that fact. But now there were questions. What was she? Where there more of her kind? Did they have a purpose to be here?

" No. To be honest I didn´t try to find a reason for my powers or why I had them. I always thought I was like Superman. Stranded here on earth because my planet was dying or something. But I know that it´s not like that", Michael wished he had been more conistent to look for clues about his powers and from where he got them. But he was scared to learn that he was just a freak or something people would fear. It was one thing to think you´re a freak of nature, however it is another to have prove for it.

Maria chuckled slightly. Yeah, she had similiar thoughts running around her head when she was a child. " I know what you mean. I thought I was bitten by a special spider and that´s the reason for my powers. I even tried to climb up a wall. Needless to say that it didn´t work".

Michael had to laugh at that thought. He could picture her standing in front of a wall and putting her little hands on it. He even could see her concentrating face when she noticed that nothing happened. " Too bad, don´t you think? I mean here we are with these powers we have and we don´t know how to use them"

" Speak for yourself. I know how to use them. I just don´t do it in front of other people", she practised almost everday with her powers and she got better and better with them. She was really thankful that she lived near the desert and it was always deserted. She had enough room and she was sure that she was alone. One time she caused a tiny tornado in the middle of it and she almost destroyed half Roswell with it. And that with just a little of her powers. She never got around to test what would happen if she used everything. She would probably destroy the entire planet or something.

Michael was pretty curious what she was capable of. He knew the extent of his powers, which wasn´t that much. He could let things explode when he was upset or change things into something different. But that was it so far. " What can you do?".

Maria expected the question and she gracefully stood up from the bed. Slowly she made her way to the wall and then laid a hand on it. Deeply concentrating she let her energy flow through her body until it pooled into her hand. Within seconds the wall changed her colour from beige to pink. And as fast as that she undid it. After that she took a seat on her bed again. " That´s not everything. But for more I would need more space and nothing near me that could break".

" I can do the same, although it never came to my mind to paint a wall with my powers", Michael snatched a ballpen of his sisters nightstand and wrapped his hand around it until it disappeared completely in it. After a few seconds the hand started to glow in a green colour and when he opened it again, the ballpen was gone. At its place was now a beautiful silver rose.

Maria was impressed. Now she finally knew why he was such a ladies man. He used his gift to entchant the women and most of them fell right into his trap. Poor things, they never had a chance against him. " Aha, that´s your number to charm the girls out of their panties. You´re pulling a Romeo".

Michael smirked like a little boy who was on the brink to do something bad. " I see you still got your panty on, so I would say you´re wrong about that".

" What?", hastily Maria looked down to her skirt. Embarrassed she noticed it slipped up and she was flashing her underwear. Quickly she pulled her skirt back down and put her hand between her legs. " Why didn´t you say something sooner?".

Michael was laughing so hard he almost fell from the bed. She was so cute when she was embarrassed and the blush on her face fitted her perfectly. " Why? I was enjoying the view".

Maria´s cheeks began to burn. But now it had nothing to do with shame. Actually it was because she was starting to get mad at him. " Stop laughing, you pervert pig or I´ll do something you won´t like!"

" Do what? Strip completely in front of me?", Michael wiped a few tears from his face with both hands. He thought about his suggestion. That didn´t sound so bad, not bad at all. In fact he would love to see her naked. " I´ll take that back. Because I would very much like that".

Maria was close to jump to her feet and strangle him with her bare hands until he stopped breathing. Or she should let him dangle from a tree in front of the class rooms in the nude. Yeah that would please her. And maybe she could torture him while she was at it anyway. " That´s it!", smiling she stretched her hand out and immediately Michael´s complete clothes disappeared from his body. Now he was sitting in front of her with nothing but his skin to cover him.

Michael, startled from the stunt, jumped to his feets and turned his head in all directions. Where did his clothes go? They couldn´t just disappear into nothing. They had to be somewhere. " What have you done and where are my clothes?".

" I warned you and you didn´t listen. Now if you´ll excuse me I´m enjoying the view", happily she proped her ellbows on her knees, put her face in her hands and stared directly at his thing, which was in the process to greet her. No wonder he was just thinking with his dick, because he was bigger than his head. Holy moly, he could kill a woman with it. Didn´t he lose his consciousness when he got hard?

Michael finally realized that he was naked and Maria was staring at his member. Instantly he took one of the pillows off of the bed and put it in front of his groin. " Could you stop that! It´s rude to stare at things you shouldn´t see in the first place".

Maria raised her right eyebrow and her eyes wandered up to his slightly pink face. " But it´s alright for you to drop sexiest comments about the other gender and make them feel uncomfortable?".

" Alright. I get it. I´ll stop with the comments. But now I want my clothes".

Maria had to quell her urge to keep his clothes just to see him walking back to his room naked. It would be the ultimate punishment for him. But she wasn´t that cruel. With a flick of her wrist the clothes were on his body again. Too bad that he was such a spoil sport. She could have had so much fun with him. " There. Are you feeling better now?".

Michael was relieved to be clothed again. Not that he didn´t like his body, but if he got naked most of the time there was an equal unclothed girl in the room with him. And it didn´t look like Maria was in the process to get physical with him anytime soon. She wasn´t an easy lay like she appeared to be. " Yes. Contrary to what you believe I don´t show just anybody my hammer".

" Your what? You have a name for your penis?", Maria put her hand in front of her mouth to keep her from laughing out loud. Men and their dicks. Why they always made such a fuss about a piece of flesh that was just there to relieve fluids or to produce offspring was beyond her. It was like she would name her breasts, what was equally stupid. Although Billy called them always the twins. But that was different. After all it wasn´t her idea to name them.

Michael took the pillow, which was still in his hand and threw it at her. How dare her make fun of him. " Oh shut up".

Maria saw the pillow flying towards her and catched it immediately with her hands. " Alright. I give in. But don´t think you´re off the hook now. I´m known to bring up such embarrassed stories to the unconvenient times".

" Do that and you don´t even have time to regret it", Michael walked closer to her and slightly bent down to look into her face. He wanted to appear threatening, although it was just an act to see her reaction. He wanted to see if she would back down or stand against him.

Maria arose from the bed and despite her shortness compared to him, her aura seemed to be bigger than her form. Her eyes darkened to a dark green and her stance looked like she would punch him every moment. " Is that a threat?".

Michael´s eyes never wavered from hers. The feeling to know her intensified with the changing of her appearance. It was like there was something in the back of his mind and he couldn´t grasp it. His body instantly reacted to her and heated up. Strangly he had the feeling they both had done this already. Like some kind of memory. For a second Marias face changed and at its place was now the face of another woman with long darkblond hair. She looked at him with the same green eyes. Startled he closed his eyes. When he opened them again everything was normal " Do you feel it, too?".

Maria didn´t know what he meant for a moment. But then something flashed in her mind. It was a picture from a man with long dark hair. He had the same brown eyes and the message in them were clear. He was angry, pretty angry with someone. However it disappared as fast as it came and now she only look at the confused face of Michael. " Do you think it means something?".

" I don´t know. I really don´t know".

Maria was trying to file the picture of the man she saw earlier. She knew this face from somewhere. It was like an awakening inside her. But what did it mean? Why did her heart beat so strong when she saw him? It was all so confusing at the moment. Slightly jazzed she sat on her bed again. Seconds later Michael followed her. He was in the same condition she seemed to be in. He didn´t understand what everything meant or if it meant something at all. What was going on here? Why them and why just now?

Suddenly both were thrown out of her thoughts when the door opened and a giggling Tess came through it. She was smiling over her complete face and her lipstick was almost gone. But when she noticed the strange faces of her brother and her roommate she sobered up instantly. " What´s up?".

Maria raised her head and watched Tess. Now she finally understood the weird feeling she got from her roommate. " You´re different like Michael, aren´t you?"

Tess´ eyes widened twice her size and she faced her brother, who nodded with his head at her. He was giving her the sign that everything was alright and she shouldn´t be scared. " How did you find that out?".

Maria shoot her arms out and closed the door behind Tess. " Because I´m different, too".

Tess was shocked for a moment. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish. She seemed to search for the right words to say, but nothing came to her mind. At least nothing that would make sense. How could this be? She thought Michael and her were the only ones with this gift until now. But when Maria had them, too, did that mean there were more people out there? " I think I´m going to pass out".

Immediately Maria and Michael jumped to her feet and both took her arms and lead her to the nearest bed. There they placed her carefully on it and watched how the colour drained from her face. Tess was looking like a ghost and it appeared like she would throw up. " You have to push your head between your legs", Maria instructed. She saw this reaction once with Liz and she knew what to do in a situation like this.

" No. She has to lie down", Michael disagreed. He never saw his sister like that and it scared him. He felt he had to do something to make Tess feel better.

Maria pushed Michael out of the way. " You don´t know what you´re talking about. She has to push her head between her legs. That will help her".

Michael hated to be pushed around and it got worse when it was from someone half his size. Angrily he shoved Maria to the side and kneeled in front of his sister. " Don´t listen to the talking pain in the ass. You should lie down for a while".

Tess eyed her concerned brother and then her eyes wandered to her roommate, which was in the process to kick Michael in the butt. Maria raised her right leg far behind and after the expression on her face it would be very painful for him. " Wait! Don´t do it".

Michael turned around and watched what was happening behind him. He saw Maria with one of her legs in the air and it was pretty obvious what she wanted to do. Slowly he stood up and went to her. " I hope you´re just practising for the ballet and that you didn´t want to try to kick my ass".

" I don´t know what you´re talking about. I had a cramp in my leg and I just wanted to make it go away. In order to do that I have to shake my leg. I´m sorry if that´s a crime", Maria was more talking with her hands then with her mouth. She almost hit Michael a few times with them.

" Why I´m not convinced about that?", Michael crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

Maria pressed her hands onto her hips and glared at him. If he wanted to scare her with his dark demeanor, he was barking at the wrong tree here. She didn´t know why, but he didn´t make her afraid. " How should I know? Do I look like I know how your mind works?".

Tess was close to laugh. They both were so funny. Finally her brother found an equal stubborn opponent. She never thought she would see the day when a girl would stand up to him or get under his skin so easily. Suddenly she saw an almost identically scene playing in front of her face. But this time it wasn´t Michael and Maria, but two strangers. The man had long black hair bound to a ponytail and the woman had her long darkblonde hair braided. Strangly she had the feeling to know them. They both were in an heated discussion and it seemed like it wasn´t the first time they did that. There was so much passion and sparks were flying around them. It was fascinating to watch. However the moment went as fast as he came and Tess just saw only Michael and Maria again. A little confused she stood up from the bed and walked to the wranglers to prevent them from killing each other. " Rath! Marianna! Could you both finally stop with the nonsense!".

Like hit from a bullet they both turned to Tess at the same time. Shocked they stared at her like she said something disgusting. " What did you just call us? Who are Marianna and Rath?", Michael was the first to find his speech again.

" I don´t know. The names just popped into my head", Tess didn´t understand where she got the names. Did they mean something? Slowly she massaged his forehead with her hands. She could feel a headache coming.

" Why do I have the feeling to know the names. What is going on here dammit!", Maria brushed her hair from her face. First she saw another face in Michael, a face which seemed to be very familiar and then Tess who called them with different names. Names she heard before somewhere. Something was happening. But she didn´t know what it was and why it happened now.

Tess knew exactly how Maria felt right now, because she wasn´t any different. She wanted to know what was going on. " Maybe we lived before and the memory is slowly coming back?".

" Yeah right. And how do you explain the powers we have? Do you think we were wizards and witches in our past lives?", Michael didn´t believe in otherworldly things. He had read Harry Potter and he thought it was just a piece of crap. Contrary to his sister, who liked the idea. Witches didn´t exist and were just a scrap of someones imagination.

Maria had thought about this already. She didn´t have any proof that witches weren´t real, but she didn´t have any proof that they were real either. It could still be a possibility. " She could be right. I mean think about it. How else do you explain this thing that happened tonight? Why do we feel like we would know each other? Or the weird reaction when we met?".

" Are you both listening to yourself? You´re sounding like two lunatics? Witches. What comes next? Aliens really landed in Roswell? Or Elvis is still alive and living in Las Vegas?", Michael was on the brink to scream at them. Alright, he had to admit the thought about this possibilities had crossed his mind one day. But he scratched it as soon as the thought was over.

Tess noticed out of the corner of her eyes the vase with the flowers she got from Kyle tonight was slightly shaking. That was a bad sign when Michael was in the same room, because it usually meant he would lose control of his powers and something would break. " Fine, you´re right and now I´m tired".

Maria´s head snapped in the direction of her roommate. Why did she give in so easily? Michael had to learn that he couldn´t just get his way without listening to the other side. There would always be people with another opinion and he had to accept that everybody had a different point of view. Just as she wanted to open her mouth to say just that, she picked up the look Tess was giving her. And she received the message loud and clear. " Yeah whatever. I have to go to the bathroom anyway". Without sparing the other two a glance she went to her dresser, took her toothbrush and her toothpaste and walked out.

Tess and Michael watched after her confused. Both had the feeling that they had done something wrong. For a few seconds they stared at the closed door, which Maria disappeared just moments ago. After that they both turned to each other to see if the other had a clue what was up with her. However it seemed like neither knew what just occured and why they felt so guilty about the whole thing. Another seconds later Michael finally registered how late it got already and he gave his sister a kiss on the cheek, said good night and made his way to his own room. Tess meanwhile waved her hand over her face and removed all the make up from it before she changed from her dress into her sleepwear. Then she took a seat on her bed and waited for her roommate to come back. Something was majorly wrong here and nobody seemed to have an idea what it could be. It wasn´t coincedence that this strange things happened just when they found each other or that they would go to the same college. There had to be some reason for all that.

" Where´s your brother? Did he explode?", Maria walked calmly through the door. She also wasn´t wearing any make up on her face anymore and her hair was bound to a messy bun.

Tess observed her roommate how she put her toothbrush and her toothpaste back into her dresser and then pulled her clothes from her body. " No. It´s late and I think he was tired".

Maria changed into a big t-shirt, that obviosly belonged Kyle and crawled under her blanket. But she didn´t lay down to sleep, instead she faced Tess, who was still sitting on her bed. " Why did you gave in so fast? I mean he was totally out of line and you just let it go".

" I wanted to prevent that someone got hurt. I know my brother and he can be the most stubborn person on this planet, add his out of control powers when he´s upset and he can be really dangerous. I learned to back down when he´s like that", Tess loved her brother dearly. But since their parents died and their grandfather hadn´t the time for them, Michael changed. At first he was pretty quiet and he always hid in the library in the mansion. Then he got older and he started to get angry at the world. Tess didn´t know what triggered it or why it happened, but she saw her brother struggle with his anger day for day. Most of the time he could hide his emotion in front of other people. However there were times when it was too much for him and he lashed out. Usually it was her or her grandfather. She actually thought he was overcoming his anger, because he learned to live with it and concentrate on getting his life in order. Obviously it wasn´t the case and everything had been coming back tonight again.

Maria didn´t like the sound of that. He didn´t appear that dangerous to her neither did she have the feeling to protect herself from him. " How dangerous are we talking about? Should I worry about Kyle?".

" No. I didn´t mean it like that. He´s not a psycho who hurts other people because he´s in the mood. He´s a good guy, just a little out of whack sometimes", Tess didn´t want Maria to think her brother was a killer or someone she should fear. It was hard to put into words what was going on inside Michael. He was more complex than he showed on the outside.

Maria was pretty relieved to hear that. For a moment she was close to run to the other building and save her brother. " Good to hear", now she could sleep better, knowing Kyle wasn´t in immediate danger. Speaking of him. " How was your date actually?".

Tess´ face started to glow and her expression wasn´t so serious anymore. Slowly a smile appeard and her cheeks were changing her colour. " It was good".

" Just good?".

Tess put her legs on the bed, took one of her pillows and hugged it close to her body. " Alright. It was better than good. It was fantastic".

Maria got pretty curious and sat up in her bed. She turned all her attention on the other girl. " Tell me anything".

" When you and Michael were gone, Kyle and I talked about everything. By the way I heard interesting stories about you. But off topic. We noticed that we liked the same things, although I don´t believe he liked the movie we watched so much like he told me. He took my hand when we walked back to the car and he gave me his jacket that I wouldn´t freeze. How sweet is that?".

" Did you kiss?", Maria had no interest in the boring stuff. She wanted to hear the juicy details. Well not too juicy, after all Kyle was still her brother and there were things she didn´t need to know about him. She would be rather in the dark about some things actually.

Tess blushed a deep shade of red and her eyes began to twinkle traitorously. " Yes. He walked me back here and then it happened".

Maria had to ask because she wanted to know if she was the only one experiencing strange flashes or if it was normal for them. " Did you see something? Like pictures or things maybe?".

" No. Why you´re asking?", Tess looked at Maria like she was insane.

Maria shrugged with her shoulders. " I was just curious".

Tess didn´t believe that one bit. Maria wouldn´t just ask such a silly question if there wasn´t something. " Did you see something when you kissed someone?", then a thought occured to her. " Did you kiss my brother?".

Now it was Marias turn to blush. Nervously she picked at her blanket and dropped her eyes to the ground. " It just happened. One minute we were talking and then he was in the mood and I was in the mood and BAM his lips were on mine"

" And you wait until now to tell me this information! How can you call me your friend!", Tess couldn´t believe it. Her brother and her roommate. No wonder that their was so much tension between them when she watched them bicker. She knew that Michael liked Maria, but that it was deeper than that went completely by her. " How was it?".

Marias lips twitched slightly and it looked like a small smile. She had to admit it wasn´t as bad as she thought. Right on the contrary, it was fing unbelievable. She never had felt something as passionate, rough and tender like this kiss and it left her craving after it. Even now she could still feel his soft lips against hers and smell his scent. " Not that bad".

Tess raised her eyebrow and glanced at the other girl questionally. Why didn´t she believe her that. There was more and she could see it in Marias eyes. " Liar. You loved it. I see the twinkle in your eyes".

" Look who´s talking. Who was the one coming all glowly in this room and grinning from ear to ear?", Maria tried to draw the attention away from her and back to Tess. This kiss would be just a one time deal and not happen again. At least not until she knew more about themself and got behind this emotion they felt towards each other.

" At least I can admit that I like your brother and that I loved the kiss. That´s more than you´re doing", Tess thought back to the moment she noticed that Kyle bend down and closed his eyes. Instinctively she did the same and enjoyed it when their lips met in a deep kiss. He had been knowing what he was doing and how he did it. Oh boy, she still had legs like jello and her mind was just coming down from the high it was on. Suddenly a question came to her. Something she didn´t even consider until now. " Is Kyle like you?".

Maria smiled reassuringly at her friend. She knew why this question came up. " No, he´s normal. At least as normal as someone with Penthouse and books about buddishm under his bed could be. But don´t worry, he knows about my powers and he´s cool about them".

Tess was relieved to hear that. It would make dating him a little lighter. And she didn´t need to hide her other side in front of him, that was a plus. Even if he read Penthouse, or rather looked at the pictures in there. " So I don´t have to be afraid that he runs away screaming from me when he discovers my otherness?".

" No. I think he even will like it. Believe me he likes my powers more than I do", Maria realized how tired she was actually. With a yawn she snuggled deeper into her blanket. " Can we continue this talk tomorrow? I´m pretty beat now".

Tess also yawned and she noticed that her eyes got heavy. Yes she could use some sleep right now herself. " Yeah. But then I want to know what happened in front of the diner tonight".

" Deal. Good night", Maria put out the light on her nightstand and closed her eyes.

Tess rolled onto her right side and put her hands under her face. " Good night".

**Hours later**

Maria turned from side to side in her bed. The cover was long gone from her body and was now lying on the ground beneath her. The moans she was making in her sleep were disturbing. It sounded like she was in pain or at least would be tortured.

_**Dreamplane**_

_Maria was standing in some kind of office. A man was opposite her and a woman was lying at her feet. Confused she looked at the man first. His eyes were making her afraid, because they were cold and empty. There was not one emotion there or even a sign that he was human. Something in the pit of her stomach told her that she should get the hell out of dodge. But then her eyes wandered to the woman on the floor. A puddle of blood was building around her head and it was obvious that she was dead. Why did the scene seem so familiar to her? And why felt she so much pain over the death of this woman? Suddenly the scenery changed and she was running through a forest. Her feet were barely holding her upright and her body ached everywhere. She could hear footsteps behind her and people talking in a language she didn´t understand. However she didn´t have to be a genius to know that they weren´t discussing the newest sports results. They were after her and she didn´t have a clue why. All of the sudden everything changed again and she was now tightly pressed at something slick and soggy. One hand was laying over her rapidly racing heart, the other tried to muffle any sound she could be making. What was going on her? Why was she so afraid? Where was she actually? And why felt everthing so familiar to her?Slowly she closed her eyes and breathed deeply in. Maybe when she opened her eyes again she was in her bed again and would laugh about this nightmare. Unfortunately when she opened her eyes she wasn´t in her room. Thankfully she wasn´t at the place she was earlier either. But now she was sitting at a table with eight people looking strangly at her. One of them she regnorized. She saw his picture when she fought with Michael. He had the same brown eyes and the same expression. Then she turned to the couple at the other side of her. The girl was beautiful and smiled slightly at her. Her blonde hair was falling straight past her shoulders and her blue eyes were warm. The boy besides had focused his attention to the opposite side now. His brown hair was sticking up in all directions and his brown eyes were searching for something. Maria followed his gaze and she noticed the object of his affection. The girl was eyeing her with her clearblue eyes. Her blonde hair was curly and it gave her the look of a fairy. Maria knew those people, it was the eyes that spoke to her. But she couldn´t understand what they were saying. Angrily she tried to open her mouth to ask them what she was doing here or if they knew why she was here in the first place. However she didn´t get the chance to do that, because in that moment the room she was sitting in disappeared and she was kneeling on the ground. She seemed to be outside now. In front of her was the man with the familiar brown eyes again. He was bleeding pretty bad and it appeared that he wouldn´t make it any longer. She was frantically trying to open his armour. But he stopped her with his hands. He was saying something to her and she didn´t understand one word of it. Suddenly her vision blurred and she noticed that tears were streaming down her face. She could actually feel the life draining out of him and it pained her. She didn´t want him to die. Slowly he stroked her face and she bent down to kiss him. Sometime later his hand dropped from her face and his lips stopped moving. Maria felt her heart breaking and a scream tore its way out of her throat._

_**End Dreamplane**_

Maria awoke with a start and she almost jumped out of her bed. The scream she released in her dream was still ringing in her ears. Her heart was racing out of control and her whole body shook. Shocked she noticed her hands, which were trembling furiously and the cold sweat on her forehead. Oh damn what a nightmare. Hastily she faced Tess to see if she was awake. Thankfully she was still sleeping peacefully and didn´t witness her weird reaction. Carefully Maria got out of her bed and walked with wobbly legs to the bathroom. There she splashed cold water on her face and looked at her reflection on the mirror. She eyed the person staring back at her, strangly it wasn´t herself, but another woman. A woman so familiar and strange at the same time. What was happening? Was she losing her mind? Was this a memory she remembered?

" It was just a nightmare. Nothing more than a bad dream".

But why didn´t she believe that? Why did she have the feeling to know the place she was and the people she saw there? And most of all, why were they so familiar to her?

TBC


	40. Chapter 40

**Thanks RedJewel2662 for the nice feedback**

**Chapter 40 The reunion of the royal five**

After the rather disturbing nightmare, which made her afraid to go back to sleep again, Maria decided to use the empty campus to do something she hadn´t done in a long while. Quietly she went to her closet and searched for her trainings clothes there. Here and there she turned around to look if her roommate was still sleeping. She didn´t want to wake her, because Tess appeared like she was dreaming of Kyle, according to her happy expression on her face. After a few minutes of digging through her whole wardrobe, she finally found her black tracksuit pants and one of her favourite t-shirts from a popular sports label with four letters. Quickly she changed the clothes and on her way out the door she bent down to lift her running shoes from the floor. Five minutes later she jogged over the campus and in the direction of the city. The air was still a little cold, the sun was partly hidden behind the buildings and the sky was in the process to change from black to a bright blue. At this time of the day there wasn´t so much people on the way. Once in a while Maria came across some students, who were on their way back to the dorm after a party. Some of them were even held from their friends, because they drank too much. She didn´t care about them at this moment. She had enough own problems she had to think about. One of her most important one was the nightmare she had. She wanted to know what it meant and who these people were. She was pretty sure that it wasn´t just a bad dream, because she had enough of them in the past and not one of them had scared her so much like that. But when it was really a memory, why could she remember it? She had watched a tv show about past lifes and a few people told about their experience with hypnotist, who lead them back in the time they had supposedly lived. They could remember places and things, although they were never at this point before. Was that what happened with them right now? Had they lived before and now they finally remembered it? But what about their powers then? Were did they come from and what purpose did they have? Was this thing with the aliens maybe not so unreal like people claimed to be? Were their parents maybe aliens? Immediately when the thought entered Marias head she banned it. If she wouldn´t be so worried, she would have laught about it. Her parents were weird, so much she could admit. But aliens? That was too unbelievable. Besides if that would be the case, then Kyle would have powers, too. However he hadn´t and made her crazy consideration useless. While she racked her brain for another explanation for the strange things that happened the last 24 hours, she didn´t noticed the man standing in her path. At least until she collided with him pretty hard and almost fell to the floor. Just the quick reaction of the man prevented her from hurting herself. He had grasped her arm the instant he realized she would crash to the ground and held her up.

" I´m sorry. I didn´t see you", Maria felt her cheeks heating up and her gaze wandered to the face of the man who saved her from embarrassing herself. Surprised she identified the person as one of her professors, to be exact Professor Potter from General Business.

" So I noticed", he looked at her amused. " You seemed pretty deep in thoughts. I hope everything is alright?".

Maria nodded her head immediately. What could she say to him. Strange that you´re asking, but I was just wondering if I´m an alien or just a freak with powers or on my way to the looney bin. She didn´t think that was a topic for conversation. " Yeah. I just couldn´t sleep last night and I thought some air would clear my head".

Professor Potter smiled at her and something entered his eyes. It was a look she often received from her father. She called it the concerned daddy look. " Be careful from now on. There are dangerous people around at this time and not everybody is so friendly like me".

" I will remember that", Maria finally registered that he still gripped her arm and it slowly scared her. " Can I have my arm back again?".

" Of course. I´m sorry, I hadn´t realized that I was still holding it", he released her arm instantly. It seemed like he was miles away with his thoughts.

Maria tried to quell her queasy feeling and made an attempt to appear normal. " Well. We´ll see each other on Monday. I have to get back on my way now".

" Ok. And remember be careful".

Maria threw him a smile that said she understood and with a wink she turned on her heels. Without waiting she started running back to the campus again. Now that was a weird conversation. She never had felt so uncomfortable with a professor or with any of her teachers in high school before. Something was pretty strange with him. She had received a little flash about some kind of soldier training when he touched her and she was afraid at first that he was also different. But she watched his reaction and he wasn´t surprised or shocked, which meant he hadn´t noticed anything. So she was under the impression that just a memory sparked in her and it had nothing to do with him. However she planned to keep an eye on him from now on and observed if something strange happened around him. It wasn´t wrong to be cautious of other people and it was certainly not wrong to trust ones instincts. Maria had to grin at the thought. She had been too long near her father, he had definitely rubbed off on her with his be careful and don´t trust others to easily talk. He was always more concerned about her than he had been with Kyle. When she was younger she hadn´t understood it, because she thought she had more strength with her powers than her brother. But now she got the meaning. Her father just didn´t want anything to happen to her. He saw too much girls her age getting attacked, murdered or raped. One day he came home with red rimmed eyes and shaking hands. He was pretty pale and looked sick. When her mother asked him what happened, he told them that he found a young girl lying in the alley behind the crashdown. She had been raped and then killed. He just saw the blonde hair and his first thought was it was Maria lying there. Thankfully his fear hadn´t been proved true, obviously because she was still alive, and he found out later she was a runaway from New York. Not that the girl had deserved to die so cruelly or that it was her fault for this, but it showed her that even something like that could happen in Roswell. Everybody often assumed they lived in a small town and crime just happened in big cities, however the reality was not always what it appeared to be. Crime lived everywhere, even in some hicktown in nowhere New Mexico. Suddenly she was taken from her thoughts, when she saw a person standing in her way. Surprised she noticed that she was already at the campus and the someone blocking her path was no other than Michael.

" Where were you? Tess is worried sick".

Maria was taken aback from the greeting and stopped dead in her tracks. Most people would start with a hello. But Michael didn´t put a value to niceties. He came straight to the point. " Hello to you, too".

Michael´s face changed to a grimace and his eyes glistened dangerously. " Cut the bshit. Where have you been? I just got a wake up call from my sister, who said you weren´t in your bed".

" What does it look like I´m been doing? I was keeping my body in shape. I´m sorry that I forgot to leave a note, Daddy", Maria didn´t understand why he made such a fuss about her not being in her room. She didn´t know that she had to sign off everytime she left.

Michael brushed his tousled hair from his face frustrated. He didn´t know why the thought of her alone this early was worrying him so much. Even Kyle hadn´t been so concerned when he heard the news of his sister disappearance. He just said that she often went for a walk when she couldn´t sleep. After that he turned around and slept again. " I didn´t mean it like that. I´m sorry if that came out stronger than I wanted".

Maria was stunned. She never thought Michael was the kind of person who knew how to utter an apology. " Alright. I´ll let it pass this time. But the next time I will kick you´re ass".

Michael scratched his right eyebrow and a smirk was appearing on his unshaved face. " Promise?".

" You´re impossible! I should really give you a good beating. But luckily I´m too hungry right now to do that", Maria should be mad at him. Not just for the way he behaved towards her moments ago, but for hitting on her. AGAIN. However the more he pushed the more she found it sweet. She didn´t know if it was the fact that they were both freaks or the fact that he finally grew onto her.

Michael laid his right arm around her shoulders and lead her into the direction of the cafeteria. " Then I should feed you. And maybe you can give me this beating later".

Maria noticed the way how nicely she fit under his arm and how safe she felt there. It was like nothing bad would happen as long as he was near her. Strange, she never felt that with anybody else, except of course her family. If she wanted or not, she was slowly starting to like this big oaf. " Promise?".

Michael for the first time since she met him smiled at her. Not this smirking or grinning he always did with the other, but a real smile. It finally reached his eyes and made them shine brighter. She never would have thought that such a simple gesture could give her such a nice warm feeling inside. " You´re a bad girl, you know that".

" Yeah. And I´m pretty proud of it".

" Then maybe you should get a beating, too", Michael raised seductively his eyebrow and gave her his come hither look. It worked almost everytime with girls.

Maria stopped in her tracks and she put herself in front of him. Her eyes got darker from lust and her body tingled from desire. Oh boy, damn hormones. Why was the thought of him beating her turning her so much on? Slowly she let her forefinger travel over his barely clothed chest, he was still wearing his sleepwear, which was a black satin boxershort and a white tank top, and bent closer to him. They were almost nose to nose. " Throw a little bondage in the mix and I´m game".

Michael felt something on him stir at the possibility. His tongue came out and wet his suddenly gone dry lips. Was she for real? Oh god, hopefully it wasn´t some dream and he would wake up in his own cum. Please, Please, Please, don´t let this be a dream. " Is that an invitation?".

" If you´re up to get a little nasty", Maria closed the small distance between them and pressed her body tight at his. Carefully she took his face in her hands and bent it down to her. Tenderly she started to kiss him.

Michael was surprised that she took the initiative this time. But it only took him a few seconds to get over it and get with the programm. He enveloped his arms around her hips and gripped her ass firmly with his strongs hands. The action elicited a deep moan from Maria and it spured him on. His body felt on fire and every cell was screaming for release. He never met a woman that could get him so hot in a matter of seconds like her. He didn´t know why he hadn´t dragged her already back to his room and had his wicked way with her. Maybe some part of his still functioning brain didn´t want this to be just something physical or his feet weren´t simply not working anymore. He didn´t care, all he cared was the woman in his arms, who felt so familiar and so wonderful. It was like he finally found the half he was searching for his whole life.

" There you are! I looked for you both all over campus", came a voice near them.

Startled Michael and Maria parted immediately from each other. Guiltily they tried to appear like nothing happened. Not easy when you blushed like a school girl who got just busted making out with someone from the parents. And the fact that both their lips were red and swollen blew their cover pretty much.

" Hey Tess. Didn´t see you coming", Maria straightened her clothes. She had to do everything to keep her hands occupied or she would start touching Michael again.

Tess looked at her and her brother suspiciously. Why were they both so red faced? And why were they behaving so oddly? What did they do? " Did I interrupt something?".

" No", alright, that wasn´t convincing at all, because it was too quick and they both had said it at the same time.

Tess´ eyebrows raised nearly to her hairline. Well, either she got trapped into some bizarro world or she was still dreaming, but something was fishy here. She was maybe blonde but not dumb. " Fine".

Maria finally got her body under control and her brain was working normal again. She had to distract her roommate or she would ask more question. She didn´t have the feeling Tess believed them and she couldn´t blame her. They were behaving pretty conspiciuous right now. " We were just on our way to the cafeteria. Do you want to tag along?".

" If I´m not intruding you two", Tess had to do everything in her power to keep her smile in. She finally put two and two together and realized what occuried a few moments ago. Now she had an explanation for the blushing faces and the fidgeting.

" You´re not. Why would you? It´s not like we want to be alone or that something happened between us", Michael saw the looks he received from the two girls. The eyes of Maria told him to shut up and those of his sisters said that he just give himself away. " I´ll see if Kyle´s up and we´ll meet you in the cafeteria then". And as fast as his legs could carry him he walked away.

Maria watched after his retreating back and enjoyed the view of his moving ass. It was a nice sight and she could get used to it. After a while she turned her attention back to Tess and noticed the amused expression. " What?".

Tess grinned like an idiot and linked her arms with her friend. Then she started to drag her in the cafeteria. " Tell me, when did you begin to like my brother?".

Maria giggled nervously and tried to find a plausible excuse. She didn´t even know when she stopped thinking about Michael as a jerk and started thinking of him as a friend, well more than a friend to be exact. Maybe she always liked him and she just was too busy to fight with him that she didn´t realize it or the hit at her head damaged more than she thought. " I don´t know what you´re talking about".

" Give it up. You can´t fool my any longer", Tess wouldn´t buy the lame explanation anymore. She saw the sparks between them and the passion in their eyes. She wasn´t blind and she could regnorize an attraction between two people.

Maria noticed that she wouldn´t get far with her tactic this time. To be honest she knew that her friend wouldn´t believe her excuse. It was far to obvious that there was something going on between Michael and her. So to get it finally over with, she told Tess what she interrupted. They talked while they stuffed their trays with food and after they sat at a table. Maria didn´t leave anything out and even mentioned shortly the little incident with her ex boyfriend Billy and how Michael beat him almost senseless. In between bites of pancakes she was explaining how it came to the scene earlier, which Tess had destroyed with her appearance. Actually it was good that she interfered with them, because neither Michael nor Maria had been in the right mind to stop what they were doing and it could have lead to things they weren´t ready for.

" Are you talking about me", suddenly someone stood behind them.

Maria turned around and glared at her brother. Holy shit, he almost gave her a heartattack. He couldn´t just sneak up on them when they were talking about things he had no business to hear. " The world doesn´t revolve around you, Kyle".

Kyle quickly kissed Tess on the mouth before he planted his butt on the seat besides her. " So I heard, but I think it´s just a rumour", smiling brightly he snatched a piece of Marias pancake and chewed loudly.

" Hey, get your own food", Maria pulled her plate closer to her and guarded it. She knew how greedy he could be and she was hungry herself. If he wanted something he had to stand up and get it himself.

Kyle rolled his eyes at her. It was just a tiny bit and didn´t even fill his growling stomach. " I am. Well to be exact Michael will get it for me", he scanned the cafeteria, which was slowly getting full from students, for the head of his roommate. Why did it take so long, he was starving.

" Are you looking for me?", Michael put the tray with their food on the table and took the seat near Maria.

" Actually just for my breakfast", without waiting he swooped the plate with the huge omelett, a bagel with something that looked like slices of turkey and a glas orange juice. He dug into his food like a starving man and started eating. It was pretty much a scary sight to see him breathing everything in without chewing properly.

Maria tried to hide her embarrassement. She was used to this, but not everyone grew up with the human vacuum cleaner. She looked at Tess and Michael, who were staring at Kyle in awe. She had to do something or they would think her brother hadn´t learned anything at home. " So Tess, what are you doing today?".

Tess drew her attention away from Kyle and glanced at her roommate instead. " Nothing planned yet. I´m open for any suggestion".

Kyle lifted his head at that. He paused in stuffing his face and threw her a questioning glance. He thought they wanted to spend the evening together. " What about our plans for tonight?".

" Still stands. But until then I´m available for anything", at that Tess turned her head to Maria. Maybe they could go in the city and canvass the shops there. She needed a new dress or even a new pair of shoes anyway.

Michael, who was busy with filling his stomach the whole time, finally joined the conversation. " We could explore the town together".

Before anyone at the table could say something, Liz and Isabel stepped at the table with their trays. Noisily they dropped in the chairs. " Hey guys".

" Did we interrupt something? Or why you´re all so quiet right now?", Liz glanced at every face. She had the feeling to intrude and that never happened with her friends before. Her glance stopped at Maria and she searched for some kind of indication what happened the night before. " Is it because of Billy?".

" What about him? Was he here? What did he do this time?", Kyle pushed his plate away from him and paid attention to his sister, who went white as a ghost at the mention of the name. Was Billy the reason that Maria wanted to go back to her room? Had Michael the injuries at his hands from him? He had grilled his roommate last night about the incident, but he hadn´t said anything. He just told him that it was over and Maria wasn´t hurt.

Maria saw the angry twinkle in the eyes of her brother. She was close to choke her best friend. She didn´t want Kyle to know what happened with Billy, because she was knew how his reaction to that would be. " Forget it. It was nothing, just a little argument. He won´t come back again".

" Who won´t be back again?", asked another voice.

Everybody turned around and saw Alex standing there with Max in tow. They both looked like they just woke up. Strange, because they stayed in last night and wanted to go to sleep early.

" No one", said Maria, just as Liz said " Billy".

Alex took a chair and placed it at the table before he sat in it. His expression was a mix of anger and shock. " What did he want here? Making trouble again?".

Maria had enough. It was one thing to hear that from her brother, but then to hear it from her best friend, too. She was aware that they both just wanted to protect her from harm and they felt responsible for her. It was even sweet, but she wasn´t a five year old, which got pushed around from a bully. She was old and strong enough to take care of her own business. " You know what? I´m so sick to be treated like a child. What happened with Billy stays between me and him. He won´t bother me again and that´s all you have to know".

Alex and Kyle dropped their heads shamefully and murmured an apology. Even Liz had a guilty expression on her face. After all she was the one who started this thing. Tess, Isabel, Michael and Max tried to look everywhere, just not in the direction of Maria. They were afraid she would fight with them, too. And although they didn´t know her that well, they didn´t want to get on her bad side.

" I have to get out of here", Maria stood up from her seat and walked quickly out of the cafeteria.

Liz, Tess and Isabel watched after her sympathetical. They could understand her. At least two of the girls, which had the pleasure of having a brother, too. Without saying anything, but glaring at the boys they followed after their friend. They found her sitting under a tree a little aside the campus. Her feets were pulled at her body and her face was resting on her knees. Carefully the other girls sat around her.

" Hey, don´t let this bother you. Their boys and talk before thinking", Liz tried to comfort her friend. She was a bit surprised about Marias reaction. She should be used to their behaviour by now, after all it wasn´t the first time something like that occured.

Tess nodded her head in agreement. She should know it, she was related to Michael. He made talking nonesence an art form. And she often had fights with him, because he was acting like a jerk towards her. " They only mean it well or they wouldn´t say anything".

Isabel patted Marias arm lightly. She could relate to her, even if Max wasn´t so much the angry kind of person. He was more into boring her to death with his talking about taking cautious with boys. The conversations were more traumatic than every sex talk she had with her parents. " We could kick their asses if you like".

Maria chuckled slightly at the suggestion. That didn´t sound so bad at this moment. Slowly she raised her head to look at Isabel. The instant their eyes meet everything faded away. Maria was suddenly thrown in her nightmare from last night again. She was sitting at the big table with the eight people around her. The blonde goddess opposite her was smiling at her. And finally she knew why she was so familiar to her. It was Isabel and the boy next to her was her brother Max. Why didn´t she realize it sooner? " Vilandra?".

Isabel pulled her hand back immediately and her eyes grew wide at this. " How do you know that name?".

" The name just came to me", Maria rubbed her forehead. All this new information were confusing her. She had accepted her uniqueness and she was happy with the way her life had been. But now everytime she got used to the changes in her life, something new popped up and confused her even more. What was the meaning of all this? What was the purpose that she met and befriended this people, she didn´t even know a few weeks ago?

" I know that name. I heard it before somewhere", Tess searched through her memories. Vilandra, the name told her something. But the more she tried to remember the more the memory was pushed into the back of her mind.

Liz glanced at her best friend, then at her roommate before she stopped at Tess. " What is going on here? Did I miss something?".

Maria turned to her. She almost forgot that she was present and that she didn´t know that she found out that she wasn´t the only one with powers. But she didn´t know if the other two were content with her knowing about them. She hated to lie to her best friend and she didn´t want it, however she didn´t have another choice at the moment. " It´s something from our business class actually. You wouldn´t understand it".

Isabel had the feeling to suffocate. She had never told anyone about her dreams, not even Max. But how did Maria and Tess know about Vilandra then? Who were they? Were they here to tell her that she was a traitor and was responsible for the death of her family, too? Were they like her and Max? So much question were racing through her head and she didn´t know where to start.

" Liz, can you do me a favour and tell my brother that he forgot something in our room last night and he should come by later to get it", Tess wasn´t sure if Liz was aware of the otherness of her best friend. She didn´t want to scare the other girl or make her afraid. Besides it would be better if they talked among themselfes at first before they told everything the others.

Liz had the feeling she wasn´t included anymore and that they wanted her gone. What were they hiding from her? She turned to Maria to see if she had the same opinion. Her best friend gave her a pleading look and told her with her eyes that she would explain everything later. " Alright. Something else?", when the others just shook their heads no, she arose from the ground and went into the cafeteria.

Tess and Maria waited until she was out of their sight before they turned their attention back on Isabel, which was still in some kinda shock. She just sat there unmoving and her glance didn´t waver from some point far away. Suddenly she faced them. " Who are you?".

" We´re the same as you", to prove her statement Maria dropped her hand besides her and waved her hand over a flower. Instantly she changed her colour from bright yellow to voilett.

" Ugh, that´s an ugly colour", Tess pushed the hand of her friend away and waved her own hand over the flower, who blossomed now in a nice red.

Isabel gasped at the sight. She thought she and her brother were the only ones who could do that. One part of her was relieved that there were more of her kind. But another was scared. Scared that they were here to punish her for her betrayal, which she didn´t even remember doing. " Do you know why we have this powers? Or what we are?".

" No. We only discovered that we both were different last night. We´re completely in the dark like you about that", Tess was happy. She wasn´t such a freak like she thought. Or maybe they were a freak show. But that didn´t bother her, because she wasn´t alone.

Maria didn´t share the same feelings like her roommate, because something did bother her at the moment. " Why did you react so shocked about the name Vilandra? ".

Isabel was contemplating to tell them a lie. She wasn´t comfortable to explain them her dreams and how scary they were. It wasn´t exactly the things that happened there, but more the things she heard. It was like someone was there with her and whispered disgusting things in her ear. But then she looked in the eyes of Tess and Maria. She knew those eyes and they weren´t hatefull. Right on the contrary. " Sometimes I dream about strange things, people and places I have never seen before, but are so familiar to me. Often there is this voice that tells me I´m a traitor and that I killed my family. He calls me Vilandra all the time and the name sparks something inside me. Strangly I have the feeling that this Vilandra wasn´t a good person".

" Does the name Rath or Marianna say something to you?", Tess had to ask, because it could maybe finally help them figure things out. Or at least would lead them into the right direction.

Isabel mulled over the names. It wasn´t the first time she heard them. But she couldn´t file the faces to the names right now. " There´s something there, but I can´t grasp it".

Maria scratched her forehead with her right hand. There had to be something to find out what they went through at the moment. Something that would tell them what was happening with them and why them at all. Dammit, they were stuck at a dead end. And they couldn´t even ask someone for help, because they would think they had lost their minds or escaped from a mental institution. " We´re getting nowhere with worrying about things we have no knowledge of. Maybe it would be best if we met somewhere and talk about what we want to do now".

" What are you suggesting?", Tess was curious what her roommate wanted to accomplish with her meeting. She knew Michael was as clueless as her in this matter. Or at least it appeared so or maybe he was just keeping everything to himself.

Maria jumped to her feet and looked down at her friends. She wanted answers and they wouldn´t get anything if they didn´t do something. " You", she pointed at Tess " will tell Michael to come to our room", then she turned to Isabel and did the same " and you will get Max. We´ll meet each other in half an hour there".

Tess rose slowly from the ground and glanced at her roommate. She had a plan, she could see it in her eyes. " What about the others?".

Maria smiled reassuringly at her. " Let me worry about that", with that she walked away.

Isabel, which was now standing besides Tess, looked concerned after her. She didn´t know what it was, but she had the feeling that something would change. Only she didn´t have a clue if it was for the better or for the worse.

**Half an hour later**

Maria was pacing from one side of her room to the other constantly. She was pretty worried about the meeting. She didn´t know why she even suggested it in the first place. What did she expect would happen? That they suddenly get their memories back? That was very unlikely. And the lying to her friends was weighting heavily on her, too. She hated to keep them in the dark. But she would make it up to them somehow. Right now Kyle, Liz and Alex were waiting for her in the same diner they went to yesterday. She told them she had to do something and she would meet them there then. Hopefully they were gone long enough. Suddenly she stopped in the middle of her room. She could hear footsteps outside and quiet whispers. Immediately she went to the door and opened it. Michael was standing in front of her, his right hand lifted and in the process to knock.

" Come on in".

Everybody stepped into the room nervously. Max looked around confused. He hadn´t the slightest clue what the meeting was for. He was just told Isabel found others like them and that they were looking for answers. Carefully he placed himself at one of the chairs in front of the desks. Michael stayed near the door and leant at the dresser of his sister with an unreadable expression on his face. Tess went instantly to her bed and sat on it. Isabel followed her and made herself comfortable besides her. Maria decided to keep standing, just in case. For what she didn´t know, but she had the feeling that something might happen. After all it wasn´t everyday that people with powers were in the same room.

" So now that we´re all here, can we know why this meeting was called?", Michael hated to be in close proximity with so much people in such small space. It wasn´t that he had claustrophobia or something. But he had the gift to read the feelings of others and he didn´t know how to shield them from him.

Maria turned to everyone and watched their faces. They were all curious what they did here. " I wanted this meeting because I want to find out what happens with us right now. I mean don´t you think it´s a little strange that we´re meeting here after all this years? I don´t think it´s coincidence that five people with powers, they have no knowledge why they had them, go to the same college and find each other there".

Tess had to agree when she thought about it that way. It was definitely a little strange. But what did it mean? That they were supposed to meet each other? That something pulled them to this college? " What are you hinting at?".

" Think about it. Since I meet you all, I feel like I found part of my family, although I didn´t know you until a week ago. I have strange flashes from people, who are familiar to me and I haven´t met them in my life. I dream about things that spark something in me. I look at you and I feel a familiarity, which I only feel with my family and friends, who know me my entire life", Maria didn´t know how to describe what was going inside her any better. She had no clue how she could make them understand something she had no words for. It was just a gut feeling and it never had let her down so far.

Michael finally pushed himself from the dresser and went to her. She had just described what he felt. Now he knew that it wasn´t just by accident that they found each other. " I know exactly what you mean. I felt it, too".

Isabel looked at her brother and saw that he nodded at them. Slowly she stood up. " I think we all felt it. But I want to know why we feel that. It had to have a reason for all this".

" Maybe we´re aliens", Max spoke up for the first time. He was a little stunned about the reaction he got immediately. Everybody was looking at him like he grew a second head.

Michael started laughing all of the sudden. Now the others turned to him confused. " Are you for real?".

Max jumped to his feet and moved near his sister. " Since I know that I´m a little different than others I searched for clues about the reason for it. I read books, I browsed through every newspaper and every magazine I could find and even used the computer at the library. And about a year ago I didn´t find anything. At least nothing that was real. But then I came across some article in a science magazine from 1982. Did you know that there was a UFO sighting that year in the desert near Roswell?".

" I think I remember my Dad telling me about it. He said that he was called there. But they didn´t find anything. There wasn´t even one hint that something crashed there", Maria was familiar with all the rumours about aliens and the supposedly crash in 1947. After all she lived all her life in Roswell and she knew that most of it was just a big joke to keep the tourists entertained.

Tess rose from the bed and put herself to the others. Now they were all standing in a small circle around the room. Just as she wanted to open her mouth to point out that the UFO sighting happened in the year they were all born, something strange happened. A white light was shooting from each body and illuminated the whole room. Everybody simulanously shielded their eyes with their hands. As fast as the light came it disappeared again. Shocked they looked at each other and asked themself the same question. What was that just now? But before someone could utter a word, the door flew open and a man stepped into the room.

" Finally all together again".

Everybody turned to the door and gasped. Maria brought just two words out. " Professor Potter?".

TBC


	41. Chapter 41

**Jadefire305 and RedJewel2662 thankx for the nice feedback. You will both love this chapter, I promise.**

**Chapter 41 History lesson or how they come to be**

**Previously in the last chapter**

_But before someone could utter a word, the door flew open and a man stepped into the room. _

" _Finally all together again"._

_Everybody turned to the door and gasped. Maria brought just two words out. " Professor Potter?"._

Professor Potter smiled at the picure in front of him. He waited so long to have them all in the same room again and now he was rewarded for his patience. He almost laughed when he saw that some things would never change. Michael and Maria were standing together in front of the others, like they wanted to protect them. They both looked like they would attack as soon as he made a wrong move. He was glad that old habits died hard. He eyed the others behind them. Tess and Isabel were keeping themself more in the background, while Max was pondering what they should do. " Hello Kids".

" What are you doing here?", Michael observed the man closer. He was checking if he was a threat or not. Strangly he just could feel a familiarity. But nothing dangerously.

Professor Potter walked closer to them and Maria lifted her hand instinctively in his direction. He was sure that she would blast him through the building every second. " I´m here to tell you something about you´re powers. Why you have them and how it came to be".

Michael relaxed slightly. Maybe they would finally find the answers they were looking for. " What do you know?".

Maria threw him a mean glare. How dumb was he? They couldn´t trust just anybody with their secret. Even if it appeared like the professor wasn´t here to harm them. But they had to be careful. If they would be alone she would have slapped him upside his head. " What he actually meant was, what are you even talking about?"

" Still the suspicous one I see. Does the name Marianna spark something in you?", professor potter observed the reaction to that name. And like he expected she startled for a moment before she tried to cover it quickly. Satisfied he turned to Michael. " Or Rath?", he faced Isabel and Tess " Or Vilandra and Ava?", after that his eyes wandered to Max " Or even Zan?".

Everybody looked at him like he just told them that they should mate with their siblings. What was this man and how did he know so much? Did he have something to do with their condition? Was he their creator? Or even related to them?

Max was the first to recover from the shock. He stepped around Michael and went closer to Professor Potter. " What are you? Are you like us?"

" No. I´m not exactly like you. I´m actually not from this planet", Professor Potter scratched his forehead nervously. He felt like he wanted to tell his children all about sex. How could he explain them something so that they would understand it. He wasn´t an egghead like his companion, who was probably sitting lazily in some town and let the sun burn on his body.

Maria´s curiosity arouse at these words. What was he implying with not from this planet? " What do you mean by that? Are you a creature from outer space?".

Professor Potter was close to laugh. She made him sounding like something from a science fiction movie, all slimey, extremely ugly and dangerous. " Something like that. I come from a planet called Antar".

Isabels face changed the expression by the mention of the name. She heard it in her dreams. The someone, who´s always calling her Vilandra, said she should come back to him, back to her home Antar. " I heard it before in my dreams".

The others turned to her instantly. They observed her confused and made her feel like she said something stupid. Angrily she glared at them and they paid attention to the man in front of them again.

" Yes. There´s a reason for that. You are starting to remember your past lifes", Professor Potter wasn´t sure what they knew already and what he should tell them. Judging after their expressions he thought it would be a long day. They seemed to be rather clueless about their powers or what happened before they came to this planet.

Tess pointed her finger at her brother. " I knew it. I knew it and you said I was crazy"

Michael rolled his eyes at her and then faced the professor. So what, he could be wrong sometimes. She didn´t have to make such a fuss about that. " Who are you?".

" My name on Antar was Nolak and I was the highest guard in the castle of King Salem. I was protecting the royal family there", at the last part his voice shook slightly with emotions. His eyes sparkled with unshed tears and he tried to hide this fact with looking into another direction.

Maria picked up the sadness and she immediately felt the urge to comfort him. Something told her that he failed at protecting his charges and he saw them all die or at least getting hurt. " What happened to them?".

Nolak looked up at her and he finally saw into her green eyes. The same like Marianna, but her face was different. " A war was breaking out and they all died".

Tess held her hand in front of her mouth totally shocked. Carefully she took a seat on her bed again, because she was sure that her legs wouldn´t carry her any longer. That was sounding so aweful. Seconds later she felt the mattress dip under her and someone laid an arm around her shoulders. Slowly she turned her head and looked into the comforting eyes of her brother. He seemed to be as stunned as herself.

Isabel observed the siblings on the bed and she felt with them. She was in the same condition right now. Finally everything she was told was making sense to her. It was like a slap into her face. It wasn´t a dream she had, it was a memory. A memory in which she was the reason for the death of her family. Suddenly she felt the soft arms of Max around her. He was embracing her tightly and kissing her temple tenderly. For the first time she was glad that she and her brother had this twin connection.

Maria watched them all. She wished Kyle would be here to comfort her like she saw Max and Michael doing it to their sisters. She felt slightly out of place, like an outsider and she never felt that way. She was always surrounded by family or friends. But now she felt so alone, so abandonded and lonely. She regretted lying to her friends and sending them away. More than ever she would need them at her side. Slowly she walked to the window and stared out.

" I know it must sound really aweful to you right now and believe me it was worse. But I´m telling you that, because you have to know what happened before you came to be", Nolak was surprised that Michael went to his sister rather than Maria.

Maria watched the people walking around campus, busy with talking to their friends or meeting their significant other somewhere. But suddenly the scene changed and she just saw a field full of dead bodies. Blood was everywhere and here and there were lying some bodyparts. The air was filled with the smell of dead and an eerie silence. " Why are you telling us this now?".

Nolak turned around and looked at her. She was still standing with her back to him and the others. " Because it´s time you know the truth"

" Are we aliens, too?", finally Max uttered the question, which everybody had on the tip of their tongue, but was afraid to ask.

" No. You´re all human, just with a few extras", Nolak looked at the confused and yet curious faces of his former children. He had never known how much they meant to him until he lost them. He had always enjoyed to be near them, because they had been fun to observe. Rath, Zan and Larek with their pranks they played on the girls, Ava and Vilandra talking about the boys and giving them pet names. The three boys didn´t know it, but he overheard them one time and found out that Rath was grumpy, Larek was joker and Zan was smiley.

Max had been so sure about his assumption. But when they were human, how came it that they had powers? When they were no aliens, why were they so powerful then? Humans didn´t have this kind of gifts. " If that´s the truth, how did we receive this powers?".

Nolak expected the question and he had enough time to prepare a speech that would explain them everything they needed to know. But before he could open his mouth a ringing noise disturbed him. He looked around the room to find the reason for the interruption. However he didn´t find anything that would make such a sound. Suddenly he saw Maria reaching in her pants pocket and pulling a small thing out of it. At closer inspection it was just a cellphone. Slowly she eyed it before she pushed a button on it and held it at her ear.

" Hy".

" _Maria, we´re waiting here. Where are you?"._

Maria closed her eyes. She didn´t like it to lie to her friends and most to her family. But she knew that she didn´t have another option at the moment. " Kyle, I won´t make it anymore. Something came up".

" _What is it? Is everything alright?"._

" It´s nothing. I just don´t feel so good right now. But don´t worry, it will pass".

" _Should we come back?"._

" No you don´t need to come back. I can handle everything".

" _Are you sure? I mean we could keep you company and take your mind off of your sickness"._

" That´s not nessecary, but thanks for the offer. I will sleep a bit, I think that will help".

" _Alright, then do that. We´ll see each other later"._

" Yeah, see you later and have fun".

Maria waited until she only heard a signal noise on the other end before she put her cellphone back into her pocket. A little sad she rubbed her hands over her face and tried to keep the tears in. Why did it hurt to be dishonest to the people closest to her?

Nolak regnorized the stance, although Maria was standing with her back to him. But he kept an eye on her for so long that he memorized every gesture or every posture from her. She was upset over something. " Is everything alright with you?".

" Yeah. You can continue with what you wanted to tell us", Maria watched out of the window again. She didn´t want anyone to see her in this condition. But all of the sudden she felt a presence behind her and it was familiar. Before she could turn around to look who it was, two strong arms were wrapping around her middle and pulling her at a hard body. Immediately the scent of musk and davidoff drifted to her nose and she knew the person. She only smelt this when Michael was near her. For the second time within two days she found his closeness calming her.

Nolak smiled at the interaction between the two. It was nice to see that their feelings hadn´t change a bit. For a moment he got worried. But now he was relieved to see them like that again. Slowly his gaze wandered to Tess and Max, which weren´t even looking at each other. They both didn´t seem to feel anything towards the other. That was strange, because they had been so much in love on Antar and Zan had mourned so deeply for his beloved Ava. But now there wasn´t any sign of regnoration so far. Not even a little spark. " Maybe I should begin from the start".

So he told them from the day when a badly bruised girl was found from Rath. A girl with no memory and no family. How she entered the life of the people in the castle and changed it, or rather changed them and got part of them all. Then how everybody found out who she was and that she lied to them. The realisation that she was the daughter of the enemy and she had to escape from her home to survive. Nolak didn´t leave anything out and even told them from the forbidden love affair between Rath and Marianna and that everybody knew it. When he came to the part of the attack on the castle, he paused for a moment. It was still painful even after all this many years. He described the battle in all details and how much they lost that day. A little tear ran down his face when he remembered the funeral. Tess and Isabel were crying openly, while Max seemed to be in shock. Maria was intently listening and trying to remember everything. Michael just held onto her and let the story wash over him. Nolak finally came almost to the end. He was at the last battle between them and their enemies. How they all died together in it. And lastly how Larek and he himself had prepared their essence to be injected in some human babies to save some part of them. They put all their hope in this miracle to change the future for their slowly dying planet. After he got everything out he watched the reaction from everyone. Like expected a defeaning silence fell over the room and nobody knew how they should behave, now that they had all their answers. Isabel hid her face behind her hands and cried harder than before, Tess had propped her ellbows on her knees and was looking at the ground and Max just shook his head horrofied. Michael and Maria didn´t move and were only staring out of the window together.

" I know it´s much to take in", Nolak hated to wait for some kind of response. But it didn´t look like anyone would say something for a while.

Finally Maria ripped herself away from Michael and walk towards Nolak. Her eyes were sparkling dangerously and her face was twisted into a angry mask. " Why us? There are billions of people on this god damned planet and you choose to mess with our lifes. How did you decide who would get the essence? With a fing coin?".

Nolak was taken aback from the verbal attack, but at the same time he was relieved to get a reaction out of someone. He would have liked it more when it would have been someone other than Maria, because he knew her temper and it wasn´t smart to piss her off. " I´m not the one you should ask that. It wasn´t my task to choose the mothers. If you want an answer you have to approach Larek".

" Great. And how do I find this genius?", Maria could barely control her powers. She was so furious that she was close to beat someone to a bloody pulp. She had her fist into a tight grip that her fingernails were digging painfully into her flesh. She was sure that she would start to bleed soon. But she didn´t want to break something or hurt somebody in this room.

Nolak felt the air crackling with powers. He noticed out of the corner of his eyes the books and the things on the shelf slightly shaking. It wouldn´t take any longer and everything would either fly around the room or fall on the floor. Maria had obviously the same gift as her former self, if not more. " I don´t know where he is exactly. But I´m always in contact with him".

Marias eyes were constantly changing from green to black. She tried to keep the rage inside, but it looked like she was losing that battle. She watched her hands, which were crackling with energy and immediately a new emotion joined her anger. Deep ruted fear. Shocked she looked at the others in the room. Nobody seemed to notice anything different with her or they were too busy with thinking that they didn´t realize something. Slowly she shook her head. " I can´t be here right now".

With that she pushed Nolak out of her way and ran as fast as her feets could carry her through the door. Past her friends, which had been walking in the direction of her room and out of the building. She didn´t hear them screaming her name or the fast following steps of someone behind her. Actually she didn´t notice anything going on around her. Neither the many people on campus, which were staring after her confused nor the rain that started as soon as she stepped a foot out. The only thing she picked up was the changing pictures in her head. It was like a bad movie playing around her mind over and over again. A man with cold eyes staring at her with disdain and hate. A chase through a strange forest. Pain and fear mixed together. A boat and darkness. Waking up in a white room. More fear but strangly no pain. A man stepping into the room, who got almost choked to death. A blossoming friendship between the mention man. Happiness and worry. The friendship changing to deeper feelings. Getting part of a family. Love and pride. A bloody battle. Losing part of the family. Anger and pain. Preparing a counter attack. Standing together with people she loved in front of many others. Hope mixed with worry. Again a battle, seeing everybody she cared for dying around her. Her lover lying at her feet, slowly bleeding to death. Unbelievable fury and unbearable pain. Maria was living through all emotions again and it was almost too much for her. Her body couldn´t handle everything at once and released a pretty amount of power. Thunderbolts were flashing across the sky, a few even crashed in nearby trees. One striked in front of her feets and startled her so much that she stumbled back. Shocked she looked at the spot were the thunderbolt had left a big black mark. A little more and he would have hit her instead of the sidewalk. She eyed her hands once more and realized that they stopped crackling and were now looking normal again.

" What are you thinking running away like that?", she had been too occupied with her thoughts, that she hadn´t noticed someone following her. Slowly she turned around and saw Michael with an angry expression storming towards her.

" I...I can´t...".

Michael stopped in front of her and observed her condition. Her hair was wet and sticking to her face. Her eyes were speaking from fear and sadness. " Can´t what? Accepting the fact that you´re choosen for something greater? That you were giving another chance to change something?".

Maria shook her head and troplets of rain were splashing to all sides. She was glad that it was raining right now, so that nobody could see that she was crying. " It´s not that".

" What is it then?", Michael didn´t understand her reaction. They wanted answers and they got them, even if it wasn´t what they expected.

Maria couldn´t talk to him when he was like that. He wouldn´t get it anyway, he didn´t have to live through the hell she called her life again. He didn´t see the people he loved dying or felt what it meant to lose everything. " Go away".

Michael grasped her arm roughly with his hand. Oh no she wouldn´t get the chance to leave him without answers. " No. If you want it or not we´re in this together. What affects you affects us all".

Maria wrenched her arm from his grip. " Please, can´t you just do what I tell you for once?".

" Not before you tell me what you´re afraid of".

Maria turned her back on him. She didn´t want him to see that he hit her sore spot. Fear. It´s a pretty strange thing. At times it is the only protection against harm and most of the time it is a sign of weakness. A weakness that had cost her too much already. She lost her mother, her second family and her lover. She wouldn´t survive it if something like that would happen once more. " I...I...You wouldn´t understand it".

Michael walked around her and lifted her face with his hand. He could see so much sadness in her glance that it almost broke his heart. " Try me".

" I can´t do this again. I went through all this shit once and I don´t have the strenght to put myself through it for a second time. I couldn´t bear to see everyone around me dying again", Maria felt so tired. Like she was actually there in the battle and fought until she was spent. Her body was weak and screaming for something comfortable.

Michael placed his hand, which had raised her head seconds ago, on her cheek and caressed it with his thump. He knew exactly how she felt, because he remembered everything, too. He saw the destruction in the castle after the fight. The worrying about his lover. His family lying dead on the floor or his last moments alive. He experienced every emotion he felt and at times it was like he wouldn´t stand this much pain and fear. But it was part of them now and it was a reminder that they had to be more careful. " You don´t have to. We were sent here to change the future. It doesn´t have to happen like the last time".

Maria´s eyes were glistening with tears. Slowly she put her hand over his and enjoyed the warmth of his skin. " I saw you dying and I felt so helpless. I watched your soul leaving your body and I couldn´t do anything to stop it. I don´t want to live through that again. My heart can´t take it".

Michael smiled at her. He could still remember her anger towards his armour, which wouldn´t open, no matter how hard she tried. " This time we will make everything different".

Maria took her hand away from his and turned her head in another direction. She already regretted the words which would be leaving her mouth soon. But she knew that if they wanted to do everything right, a few sacrifices had to be made. They had to correct the wrongs they did in their past. " Yeah. And the first difference is that we don´t continue what we started".

" What do you mean?", Michael hoped that it wasn´t what he thought. She couldn´t just make such a decision without him.

Maria backed slowly away from him. She couldn´t think clear when she was near him. " This attraction between us had to stop. We know what happens when we give into our feelings. People get hurt or die. I don´t want to make the same mistake again".

Michael´s eyes were blazing suddenly. His normal chocolate brown eyes were appearing almost black and his whole aura seemed to get darker. His jaw was slowly moving, like he wanted to squash something with his teeth. His carotid was pumping visible. " Great. Let me just check where I can find the fing button where I can switch off my feelings! Oh I´m sorry something like that doesn´t exist in human bodies!".

" Why I´m not surprised that you would react like that? Can´t you just stop thinking with your dick and be reasonable! I´m trying to do the right thing here and you have nothing better to do than attacking me!", Maria felt the same rage crawling through her body again. But this time not just her hands were crackling with energy, but her whole body. The ground beneath her feet was shaking slightly and the wind had picked up speed. The trees around them dipped dangerous close to the earth.

Suddenly a thunderbold striked directly besides them. Immediately Michael grasped Maria and pulled her away from harms way. He embraced her tightly and turned her around to shield her with his body. For a moment both looked at the ground. Surprised they saw the word Destiny burned into the pavement at the spot where the thunderbolt had striked. Confused they both faced each other. The moment their eyes meet the connection which had been formed on Antar between them sprang to life again. All the love and the happiness was in this glance and they both seemed to be trapped in time and space. The world around them disappeared, the rain was gone and replaced with the warmth of a red sun, to be exact three suns and the air smelled sweet. Slowly Michael bent his head down and kissed Maria, which awaited his warm lips eagerly. For just one instant they felt complete and carefree. Like two normal people, who just discovered the joy of love. But the moment went away as fast as it came and they both were standing in the pouring rain in the middle of a sidewalk somewhere near the campus again. Michael was the first who broke their kiss. With a smile he watched Maria´s eyes clearing and assuming their green colour, he loved so much.

" And you really want to throw that all away?".

Maria sighed deeply. Her first instinct was to say no, because that was what her heart was telling her. But she knew that she couldn´t let her feelings dictate her actions. She had to think about the consequences and they hadn´t changed in the last minutes. Even if she wished it would be different. " We have to".

Michael felt a light tug at his heart. He had to admit that he lost this battle with her. But the war was still going on and he would make sure that he won it. He would give her what she wanted. At least for a while. After that she had to prepare herself for a hell of a fight. He wouldn´t just give her up so easily and forget what they once had. " As you wish".

Maria was relieved that he finally come to his right mind and saw things her way. But at the same time she was hurt that he gave in without a fight. She had expected more from him and not just a simple -as you wish-. What kind of response was that anyway? Carefully she stepped away from him and noticed for the first time that it had stopped raining. The sun was finally coming up behind the clouds and was shining on them. All of the sudden she regnorized movement behind Michael. All her friends were running towards them, soaked to the skin and majorly worried.

" Holy shit, we finally found you", Kyle was the first to arrive. He was slightly out of breath and had to fight to get air in his lungs. It had been a long time that he exercised that much.

Liz and Alex were the next who appeared. They seemed to be in better shape than Kyle, although Alex had problems standing upright. His feets felt like jello. " Why did you run away like that?".

Before Maria could tell them some tale she would regret as soon as it left her lips, Isabel came to a halt in front of everybody. She was pretty wasted and her face had a few red spots. Obviously she didn´t have so much exercise. She turned to the other three and send them a glare. " Why couldn´t you wait on me?".

Kyle meet her glance dead on. " Because you were to slow".

Isabel pointed at her feets, which were in high heels. " Have you ever tried running with these shoes? Their not made for something like that".

" Then you should have taken them off", Kyle prevented himself in time to roll his eyes at her. She didn´t seem to be the smartest in the bunch. He couldn´t even understand why girls would wear such uncomfortable shoes. Alright, they looked hot at certain woman, he had to admit that.

Maria smiled at the interaction between the two and immediately she was reminded about the friendship she had with Larek. They were like that, too. Even if she was sure that Kyle wasn´t secretly in love with Isabel. " Where did you leave Max and Tess?".

Isabel let her gaze wander to Kyle for a short moment. She didn´t feel too comfortable to discuss this in front of him. Because it could be something he wouldn´t like. " They´re still in the room. They wanted to talk about some things".

Maria understood the meaning instantly and she got worried about her brother. If Max and Tess felt just some of the things she and Michael felt, than Kyle didn´t have a chance. She turned to Michael, because he had been so quiet the whole time. He was standing besides her with an emotional face and his arms crossed in front of his chest. His glance was directed at some point far away and he didn´t seem to be with them actually.

" What happened that had you running like the marathon man?", Liz observed her best friend while the others talked. She saw that something went totally wrong, she could regnorize it in her eyes, which were looking with so much sadness. In all the time they knew each other, she hadn´t seen her friend like that.

" I´ll tell you later. But I´m actually starving right now. Contrary to you, I didn´t have something to eat since this morning", Maria went to her best friend and linked arms with her. She would be honest with them. At least the part with her. The others had to decide for themself to tell them their secret or not.

Isabel looked at the boys with a smile on her face. " I don´t assume that someone would maybe carry me back?".

Kyle and Michael snorted loudly before they followed the girls. What did they look like? Donkeys?

Just Alex stayed behind and returned her smile. It would him give finally the chance to erase his first impression. " It would be my pleasure to do that".

" That´s so sweet. Thank you", Isabel bent down to take her shoes off. They were killing her feet. After that she went behind Alex and climbed carefully on his back. She was surprised about the strength he actually had. She hadn´t expected that after his appearance. Hm, maybe she finally found her prince charming after all.


	42. Chapter 42

**Jadefire305 : I´m glad you liked it. I hope this chapter is just as good**

**RedJewel2662 : Yeah Maria is pretty stubborn. But how could anybody resist Michael long?**

**Chapter 42 The truth and its consequences**

Maria, Kyle, Liz, Alex, Isabel and Michael were sitting around the common room in the girls building. They thought it would be quiet at this time, because most of the female students were either making themselfs ready for a date, a night of partying or was really busy with learning. Except for a few boys, who were scurrying past them, obviously nervous for their dates, they were very much among them. Michael had confiscated the red comfy arm chair in front of the tv, which was showing the repeating of an old friends episode from season six with no sound, Kyle sat restless on the red couch besides a suspicous looking Liz and a calmly smiling Alex. Isabel had made herself comfortable on the smaller couch and bit her nails. They all observed Maria, who was silently eating her sandwich she brought from a subway near campus. She was too busy with her Turkey, Ham & Bacon Melt and the coke, which was standing in front of the wood table in front of her, that she didn´t notice the quietness which surrounded them at the moment. From time to time the silence was pierced through a munch from her or a slurp from her coke. Suddenly Kyle jumped to his feet, because he couldn´t stand this waiting any longer. He had been patient the whole time, although he knew something was wrong. But now he wanted answers dammit!

" What the hell is going on here? Why are you acting so strange lately? And why do I have the feeling you´re hiding something from us?".

Maria startled for a second and almost choked on her bite. Immediately she gripped her cup of coke and tried to flush it down. Slightly out of breath she looked at her friends, which were eyeing her strangly. Slowly she put the cup on the table again, after she was sure that the offending thing in her throat was where it should be. She was dreading this conversation and she thought if she would take her time eating, the others would forgot everything. Unfortunately she hadn´t that much luck. Well, now she had to bite into the sour apple. " I finally found the source of my powers", why beating around the bush too long. It was the truth and straight to the point.

Liz and Alex simultaneously shoot their glances in the direction of Michael and Isabel to observe their reaction to this statement. Strangly they didn´t seem to be so surprised to hear that. They were looking around the room without a care in the world. Confused Liz and Alex faced each other. Now they were as curious as Kyle, if not more. Kyle meanwhile didn´t give a damn about them. He turned away from his sister and put himself with his back to her with his arms crossed over his chest. His face showed anger and disappointment.

Maria was stunned about the cold treatment from her brother. She was under the impression he would be happy for her that she figured out why she was so gifted or that he at least would be glad. But she hadn´t expected such an angry reaction. She let her eyes wander to her two best friends. Maybe they would be more of a help. Thankfully they both were smiling at her and giving her an encouraging nod to continue with her explanation. So she told them what she remembered and what she was told from Nolak. She started with the story about antar, the escape from her home, the waking up in strange room, meeting this great people who took her in, the battles and the part where the essence of this person was injected into her. Here and there she glimpsed at Michael and Isabel, who were trying to hide their emotions from the others. Isabel was eying the ceiling with interest and Michael was acting like he watched tv. When she was finished with her story she waited for a reaction from her friends and especially from her brother. He hadn´t moved a muscle the whole time and he hadn´t turned around yet. Liz was speechless and Alex was obviously trying to choose between believing his friend or sending her into a looney bin.

" Now you know why I have been acting so strangly lately", she told them the truth and now it was up to them what they did with this information. She was scared to lose them, but she was glad to have everything out in the open.

Liz arose from the couch and went to her best friend. Carefully she laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it slightly. " Now that´s explains a lot. I was already thinking you wanted to get rid of us. I´m glad it´s not".

Maria turned to her shocked. " You believe me?".

" Of course. I mean I´m a little overwhelmed right now, but that´s expected. You don´t learn everyday that your friend is an alien, do you? ", Liz saw the emotions in her best friends eyes. That wasn´t something you could fake. Besides why would Maria lie about something serious?

Maria was so relieved that her best friend didn´t think she was a nutcase. Happily she embraced her wholeheartly. All of the sudden a weird noise broke them apart. Startled they both watched Alex. He was holding his belly from laughing so much. " What is so funny?".

Alex tried to get his laughter under control to speak so that everybody could understand him. Hastily he wiped his eyes dry and looked at Maria. " You. I mean you´re an alien and you were growing up in Roswell, the town of the famous crash of 1947 and you were working at a alien themed cafe. If that´s not funny then I don´t know what is".

Liz and Maria thought about the irony of the situation and they started to laugh, too. Now if one put it that way it was pretty hilarious. Here she was living all her life in a town, which was famous for a supposedly crash from outer space and she was surrounded by alien dolls and other things and nobody knew that she was a real living prove that life on other planets really existed. She could make a fortune with that. Michael and Isabel had to smile about what Alex said. They were thankful for growing up in another cities, where aliens were not an topic everyday.

" Are you alone here?", the cold question from Kyle stopped the laughter instantly. He was still turned with his back to everybody and it was obvious that he didn´t found this so funny like the rest of them.

Marias mood changed immediately. She couldn´t understand what was going on with him. He was always so supporting regarding her powers. And now he acted like she was a evil creature with the mission to destroy the planet. " Why are you asking me that?".

Finally Kyle turned around and glared at his sister with so much hate, that it was scary. " Because I want to know if I have to expect more of your kind".

" What the hell has gotten into you to attack my like that? I´m still your sister and not some monster", Maria was hurt about his behavious towards her. Suddenly she was thrown back in another time and she saw Nicolai standing in front of her. He had the same expression like Kyle right now and the pain got worse. History repeats itself, wasn´t that the exact words her history teacher in high school told them. Maybe he was right about that.

Kyle broke out in laughter. But not the funny kind, more like the crazy kind. " You´re not my sister anymore. You´re some reincarnation of a warrior from this strange planet".

Now Liz interfered, because she could see that her best friend was close to start crying and because she thought that Kyle was acting like a first class jerk. " How can you say that? I advise you to shut your trap or I will personally kick your ass to hell and back!"

Isabel, Alex, Maria and Michael glanced at her a little stunned. They had never heard her say such nasty things, they didn´t even know that she knew those words actually. Even Kyle was taken aback for a moment. But he recovered really quickly and continued with his ranting.

" What do you expect from me? That I would be glad for you? Or that I would do like nothing changed. Well, newsflash, that´s not the way this works in our world".

Maria stood up from her seat and was just in the process to walk out of the building, because she couldn´t be in the same room with her brother any longer. It pained her that he thought like that about her. Her own brother was going against her, while her best friends accepted her. But she was stopped when Tess and Max came towards her with big smiles on their faces. They both seemed to be happy about something.

" Hey guys".

Tess was the first who noticed the depressed mood in the room. Her brother was burning Kyle with his eyes, Liz and Isabel were worriedly looking to Maria and Alex seemed to be on the brink to jump someone. Kyle was glaring at the wall in front of him and Maria had looked better. " What´s up? What did we miss?".

Maria faced her and she wished intensly that she decided to try it again with Max, just to hurt Kyle. But she regretted the thought before it was even finished. No matter how cruel he may be at the moment, he was still her brother and she loved him. " I told everybody the truth".

" You told them about us?", Tess´ heart began to beat like crazy. Now that would explain the weird vibes she was getting from everyone.

" Us? You´re an alien, too?", Kyle exploded fully at that. It was bad enough that his sister kept things from him, but also his girlfriend?. " How much of you are here? Tell me are there still human people in this room?".

Finally Michael jumped from his armchair and went straight to his roommate. Angrily he grasped him at his collar and lifted him a few feets from the ground. His eyes were sparkling dangerously. " Lower your voice or I´m forced to shut your mouth. And believe me, it won´t be nice".

" Michael, stop it. Let him down", Tess ran to her brother and tried to keep him from hurting her boyfriend. She didn´t want him to scare Kyle more, he was afraid enough, judging after the fear in his eyes and the expression on his face.

Michael didn´t listen to his sister, nor did he register that Kyle got quiet all of the sudden. All he noticed was the raging hate inside him. The anger towards the person who dared to hurt his beloved Marianna and verbally attacked his sister. No one was allowed to cause them any kind of pain, even if the someone was someone he thought was a friend. In that moment he felt the power building in his body and his hands started heating up. It wouldn´t take any longer and Kyle would just be a big pile of dust. Suddenly he sensed another presence in his mind, which was telling him not to do it. That he wouldn´t hurt someone he cared about. Confused he turned his head in the direction where Maria was standing. Again the voice pleaded with him to let Kyle go. Strangly it sounded like Maria, but her mouth hadn´t moved. Startled Michael let his roommate fall to the ground and stepped back.

Tess went immediately to her boyfriend, who was lying stunned on the ground and watched the weird staring contest between Michael and his sister. " Are you alright?".

Kyle´s head snapped in her direction and he looked at her like she would be something disgusting. Quickly he scrambled to his feet and held his hands in front of him in some kind defence stance. " Keep away from me and my friends". With that he went out the door.

Maria broke the eye contact with Michael and watched her brother fleeing the room. With tears in her eyes she glanced at her friends.

Liz understood instantly and arose from her seat. Then she took the arm of Alex and lifted him up. " We´re going after him. Maybe we can knock some sense into him".

" Thank you", Maria saw how they both made their way outside. When she was sure that they were alone again she turned her attention to Michael once more. He was still staring at her confused and a little surprised. But she didn´t care about that at the moment. With a quick movement she shoot her arm forward and punched him really hard on the shoulder.

" Ouch. What was that for?", Michael rubbed the sore spot. Damn he forgot how much strength she had.

Maria glared at him. Actually she should punch him again just because of that stupid question. Unfortuantely she hurt her hand at the punch." That was for attacking my brother. What were you thinking?".

Michael´s jaw almost hit the ground. She couldn´t be seriously asking him that? Wasn´t it obvious why he did what he did?" I was trying to help you. I couldn´t just sit there and listen to the things he threw at you".

" Great help you were. Now I´m probably losing my family because you wanted to play hero", Maria went to the couch and sat besides Isabel, who immediately laid an arm around her shoulder to comfort her friend.

Michael raised his arms in the air and groaned. Some things would never change, no matter which life they were living. " Great. Now it´s my fault again".

If the situation wouldn´t be so fed up Maria would have probably laughed about him. She loved it when he was in a snit. But she wasn´t in the mood right now. She was already trying to find an explanation for her parents when Kyle told them everything about her. Would they react exactly like her brother? Her father was Sheriff in Roswell and he had sources. Would he sent her away? Maybe deliver her to the FBI? And her mother. How would she act when she knew the truth about her daughter? Would she still love her, despite her uniqueness? So much questions and so many kinds of answers. Slowly Maria rubbed her forehead. All this worrying was giving her a headache.

" And what are we doing now?", Max had been really quiet all through the little scene. But now he wanted to know what they should do, if Kyle would lose his cool and tell the information the wrong people.

Tess slumped on the couch next to Maria and put her head on the other girls shoulder. She felt pretty down at the moment. The words Kyle threw at her were still echoing in her mind and she couldn´t get the picture of his look out of her head. She never knew that words could hurt so much. " What can we do? I mean he´s not a threat. At least not yet".

Isabel shared a glance with Maria. If anyone should decide what to do then it should be Maria, because she knew Kyle the longest and had to know what to expect from him. " What do you think?".

" I really don´t know. I can´t explain this behaviour. He was always so cool with my powers. It´s like he´s a different person".

Michael took a seat on the couch opposite the girls and propped his head in his hands. Like it wasn´t already hard to be unique in a world where people were rated after their standard. But then to know that you couldn´t trust anybody outside your cycle, was pretty sad. " Do you think he will do something stupid?".

Maria faced him with glassy eyes. Hell if she knew. A few hours before she could have answered this question with a strong no. But now she wasn´t so sure anymore. He was like a stranger to her right now and she didn´t know what was up with him. " I don´t know".

" Didn´t you tell me that I wouldn´t have to worry about telling him about me? That he would be ok with me being different", Tess was close to tears. Just at the moment when she decided against continuing the relationship with Max, because neither of them felt the same like before. She had feelings towards him, but it was like with Maria, more like a familiarity than anything romantically. And now she could forget everything, after all it looked like Kyle wasn´t interested to date a freak.

Maria sighed deeply. She had completely forgotten how it must be for her. She was just starting a relationship with her brother and now everything blew in her face, because she wanted to be honest with him and her friends. If she had known what would happen, she would have kept her mouth shut. " I really thought he would accept it. Well, maybe he would be shocked or even confused. But that he would react so cold? I didn´t expect that. And the way your brother acted towards Kyle wasn´t a big help either".

Michael rolled his eyes at her. How long would she hold that against him? He did what he thought was the right thing and he didn´t regret it. He would do it again if he had to. " Would you finally stop it. It´s over".

Isabel smiled at them both. They were finally behaving normal, at least normal for their standards. As long as they had something to fight over, they still had feelings for each other and that meant everything would be alright. She didn´t know how much she missed it until now. Her brother caught the smile on her face and he had to grin, too. They both would never change, not in thousand lifes.

" Don´t roll your eyes at me, buddy", Maria pointed with her finger at him and tried to look really mean, which obviously didn´t work when she saw the amused expression on his face. " And why are you smirking like an idiot?".

Michael chuckled lightly. He loved it when she was mad, especially at him. She always got this sexy twinkle in her eyes and it really turned him on. " Because you made the word buddy sound so erotic".

Maria raised her arms like she wanted to strangle him. But she decided to save that for something really important. " Why do I even try?".

Tess was in process to tell them they should clear their issues at another time, when she saw Liz and Alex coming back into the room. Judging after their expression the conversation with Kyle went better than they thought. Immediately she nudged Maria to direct her attention to the arriving people. Expectantly everybody looked at them and waited what they had to tell.

" And what´s the verdict? Should I start packing my things and leave the country?", Maria tried to read something from the faces of her friends. But she was too nervous to do that.

Liz smiled reassuringly at her best friend. " No. But I think it´s the best if you talk to Kyle".

Maria stared confused at her. What did she mean with that? Talk to him. Didn´t they already do that? Well, it wasn´t a really conversation, but she told him something and he responded. That was part of a conversation, even if it was in a more heated way. " What is there still to talk? He made clear what he thought of me".

" Please Maria. Can you just for once step over your pride and do what we say", Alex had never seen his friend so out of control like today. It had scared him actually. But now after they knew the reason for his outburst, he had sympathy for him. Even if he still couldn´t partly understand why he didn´t vocalize it more calm.

Maria stood up from the couch and went to the door. " He better be ready to apologize or else I´m gonna kick his ass back to Roswell with my high heels".

**Outside**

Kyle was sitting under the big tree where already Liz and Maria let their emotions go. The tree got slowly something like a sacred place for them, a place where they could pour their hearts out or to give free rein of their rage. Maybe they needed such a location far away from their homes and far away from the people they loved. In Roswell Maria would always drive to the desert with her moms car when she needed time to think about something. There was this old quarry, which had been the spot for many parties throughout the years. But for her it meant freedom, because there was this high point from where she could overlook the whole desert. Sometimes she thought she could see the end of the world and she wondered how long she would need to arrive there. She knew it was stupid, because there wasn´t an end, but she needed to believe that it existed. Where there´s a start, there´s an end. Such a simple phrase that explained everything. This words were circling around Marias head when she made her way to her brother. Was this the end for them?

Kyle, who had his legs tightly pulled at his body and hid his face on them, looked up when he heard steps nearing him. He swallowed visibly and his eyes lost the angry gleam, now there was just this guilty look. He observed his sister and noticed her stance instantly. She was pissed and hurt. " You came".

Maria stopped in front of him and folded her arms over her chest. Her face wasn´t giving anything away. It lacked the normal expression like usual. " Yeah. You can thank Alex and Liz for that, because I wouldn´t want to be near you willingly right now".

" I know and I understand. I just want you to know that I´m sorry for freaking out like that. I don´t know what came over me", Kyle was afraid that he had destroyed their connection with his outburst. He didn´t want to hurt his sister or make her feel bad. He had known that she would someday find the answers she was looking for. But he didn´t know that it would bother him that much when the day came.

Maria lost a bit of her anger towards him. She knew that it must have been a shock to him to hear those things. But it didn´t give him the permission to attack her like that. " You really hurt me in there and I don´t know if a simple apologize will be enough".

Kyle dropped his head in shame. He really messed up this time and it cost him the most important person in his life. He knew that it was unforgivable what he said to her and how much it must have hurt her. But he promised himself that he would do everything to mend things with his sister. After all they were family and they couldn´t just break up like a couple. " Do you think you can forgive me someday?".

" Depends", Maria went to her brother and sat besides him. " Maybe you tell me the reason for your outburst and I´ll decide if I can forgive you or not".

Kyle raised his head in her direction. Did she know something? Had she felt something through their twin link? " I can´t tell you that. You would hate me. Well more than you do right now"

Maria´s heart went out to him. She didn´t want him to think that she would hate him. Hate was such a powerful world and just reserved for people who really deserve it. He was definitely not one of those. Besides she knew how it felt to be hated from your family and it didn´t feel good. " I don´t hate you. I´m pretty pissed at you, but I don´t hate you".

" How can you not? I was very much out of line and I hate myself for the things I said. You didn´t deserve that", Kyle shook his head angrily. He couldn´t understand her. In her place he never would want anything to do with her. But she was so fing calm at the moment.

Maria took his hand and squeezed it. After she noticed his surprised expression she smiled at him. " If I didn´t know you, I would probably hate you. But I know there has to be a reason for your behaviour and I want to know it. Contrary to what you believe we´re still family".

Kyle winced at her words. He almost forgot that he said that to her. It must have been sounding aweful and had to have hurt pretty much. Now he felt more guiltily than before. " I´m really sorry. I didn´t mean it like that".

" Alright. Then you can finally tell me what´s bothering you", Maria would go on and on until he spilled. Her patience level was pretty high and she could sit her for a very long time.

Kyle looked towards the registration building. He couldn´t bare to see the horrified expression of his sister when he told her the truth or the anger in her eyes. She would probably slap him and he would even expect it. He would deserve everything she would do. " I didn´t want you to ever find out where you got your powers. I even feared the day you would figure it out".

" Why?".

Kyle breathed deeply in. He didn´t know how to vocalize something that was hard to describe. It was a feeling in his guts, a nightmare, a thought in the back of his mind, but nothing solid. It was just there. " I always thought that if you knew why you possess this gift, you would try to find other people like you", he paused to gather his thoughts. " I was afraid that you would suddenly realize that it would be better to hang out with other, who would be more like you and leave me behind".

Maria was stunned about this revelation. She didn´t know that he thought like that about her. Of course she wouldn´t leave him behind, no matter what. He was her brother, best friend and most of all one of the more important people in her life. She would not even think about that for a moment. " Why didn´t you tell me that sooner? We could have avoided this argument if you would have just told me the truth".

" I felt stupid for having these thoughts and I was scared to hear something I wouldn´t like", he felt ashamed to admit that he had insecurities like everybody else. It was something no one would expect from a guy like him. A boy who was sporty, popular and admired from the girls.

Maria laid her head on his shoulder, a classical sign that she wasn´t mad at him anymore. How could she after he told her that. They were more alike than he thought. She would have done the same at his place. It was hard to admit your weakness to others and she should know it. " Did I ever give you the feeling that you couldn´t talk to me about everything? That I wouldn´t listen?".

Kyle was relieved when he felt his sisters head on his shoulder. He knew that she wasn´t angry with him and that she already forgave him. " No never. But I thought it would sound crazy when I said it out loud and you would think I went loco".

Maria started to laugh at that. " Hey you´re talking with me. An alien with memories from a past life, who lived all her life in Roswell, the alien capital of the world".

" Yeah, but I didn´t know it at that time. How should I know that you´re crazier then me?", Kyle followed the lead of his sister and laughed, too. It felt good to do that with her again. He didn´t like it when they fought seriously.

Maria lifted her head from his shoulder and glared at him. And because she couldn´t help herself she pinched his shoulder hard. Smiling satisfied after she heard his cry of pain, she relaxed against the tree. " You should be glad that I decided to forgive your sorry ass or I would kill you with my glance".

Kyle rubbed the spot she pinched. She almost peeled his skin off of his body with her nails. Damn her and her claws. But when he heard the word forgive he decided to let it slide for now. " Yeah like you can do that", slowly he turned his head and looked in her eyes. They looked normal. However he couldn´t be sure. " You can´t do that, can you?".

" Don´t know. Didn´t try it", suddenly a thought occured to her. " Maybe I could check it on you?".

Kyle jumped immediately to his feet. Bloody hell, he was too young to die. Even if his sister wasn´t mad at him anymore, he didn´t want to find out if she was serious with that comment. " I´m not a guinea pig".

Maria´s face broke out in a smile. She wasn´t angry with him, but that didn´t mean she couldn´t let him suffer for a while. " Don´t worry. I will spare you", slowly she arose from her position and walked to Kyle. " After all you still have to deal with Michael. And believe me he won´t be so charitable like me".

Kyle´s eyes widened at that thought. He already forgot about that. " Do you think he will believe me when I say that I was possessed from a bodysnatcher?".

" Come on, don´t be such a baby", Maria dragged her brother in the direction of the girls building. " He won´t hurt you... much".

Kyle tried to escape from her grip and run in the other direction. After what he saw before, Michael had much strength and it wouldn´t take the other boy much to rip him into pieces. And Tess would probably help him. Oh shit! He almost forgot his girlfriend? No wonder his roommate had been so furious with him. Great, he finally found the right girl for him and he blew it completely within the first day. Maybe he could act all clueless and say that he couldn´t remember anything? " I can´t go in there".

Maria stopped in her tracks and looked at her brother. " Of course you can. They´re just as curious what´s going on as me", she saw the scared look in his eyes and wondered if he believed the things she said earlier. " I was just joking with Michael. He won´t hurt you, believe me. I won´t let him".

" It´s not that. It´s Tess".

Maria needed a few seconds to understand the meaning of her brothers sentence. But when it dawn on her, she winced. Now that was something complete different. He really did a number on her and he even wasn´t there to see her crestfallen face. Maybe he should crawl back on his knees with a sad puppy look on his face? " Do you have money with you?".

Kyle stared at his sister confused. Why did she ask after money? " Yeah a few dollars. Why?".

" Give it to me".

Kyle got more confuser the more Maria talked. Why should he hand over his money? What did she want to do with it? " Why should I?".

Maria was close to choke him. It was a wonder that he always had a girlfriend when he didn´t even know the basics about women. He should be thankful that he had a sister, who help him out. " Because you can´t apologize to a girl without a gift. You give me cash and I get something nice for Tess"

Kyle was still slightly baffled, but he pulled a few dollar notes from his pockets and handed it over to his sister. He didn´t understand the concept exactly, but he had faith in her and she had to know how girls wanted to be treated. After all she was a member of them. Without a word Maria took the money, kissed his cheek and dashed away. The only thing he could do right now was to wait for her and hope that she found something Tess would like. Nervously he paced around the tree and shook his head every two seconds. He was trying to formulate a sorry speech for his girlfriend or hopefully still girlfriend. How do you apologize to the girl you like when you treated her like a freak? A simple I´m sorry wouldn´t be good in this case. Maybe he should really stick to his he was possessed from an evil alien concept. Immediately after the thought popped in his head he scratched it. It was pretty unlikely and it wouldn´t be right to tell a lie, not when they weren´t together that long. It wasn´t good to start a relationship with lies. Kyle was so busy with mulling over the things I wanted to say, that he didn´t notice that he was watched from the girls common room. Liz, Isabel, Alex and Tess were squeezed together, because everybody wanted to see what happened between the siblings, in front of the window.

" Where do you think Maria went?", Liz asked the others. She knew that she and Kyle had settled their differences. But where did her best friend disappear so fast?

Alex shrugged his shoulders. He wondered the same right now. " Maybe she got called from the mothership?".

Isabel and Tess glared at him simultaneously. It wasn´t nice to make such jokes in the presence of aliens. Michael, who was still sitting in front of the tv and watched a new episode of the simpsons, turned to the others and chuckled slightly. After he received two unbelievable glances he just paid attention to the tv again. Geez, he found the joke funny.

" Alex if I hear something like that again I will have to get nasty with you", Isabel had her right hand at her hips and she waved with her forefinger in the other boys direction.

Alex faced her with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. " Can I have that written?".

Isabels face turned three shades of red darker. Usually there had to more to make her blush, but she felt really flattered right now. Even if Alex wasn´t exactly the type of guy she would normally date. He was nice and actually not too bad to look at. She eyed him closer. On his own way he was pretty cute. " If you have a piece of paper and a pencil?".

Liz observed them and groaned. Great she was stuck between the lovebirds and Ms. Depressed. " Could you both stop that? We have other problems right now". But neither of them seemed to have heard a word she said. Annoyed she threw her hands in the air and went back to the couch. Everybody had someone. Maria had this strange thing with Michael, Alex was openly flirting with Isabel and Tess had problems with Kyle, but at least she had a guy. And what about her? She was alone like always. What was wrong with her? She was intelligent, cute and nice. However no guy had interest in her. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted when she felt someone sitting besides her. Startled she looked up and saw the beautiful brown eyes of Max watching her.

" Are you alright?".

Liz felt heat rising in her cheeks. She wouldn´t admit it loud, but she had a little crush on him. He was the only one in his bunch, who wasn´t so dominant like the others. Tess was always so hyped up, Maria said what was on her mind, Isabel didn´t have to open her mouth to get noticed and Michael was pretty rude, at least to others. Only Max seemed to be quiet and thoughtful. He was more in the background and just said anything when he had something useful to tell or when he was asked. But other than that he observed more. She like it. " Yeah. I just think everything finally caught up with me. You know learning that aliens are real is pretty much overwhelming".

Max smiled at her. She was so cute when she blushed. " Yeah I can imagine. But you´re not scared of us, are you?".

" You´re one, too?".

Max saw the surprised expression. He thought she knew that by now. " Yeah. Me, Isabel, Tess, Maria and Michael".

Liz´s eyebrows nearly rose to her hairline. She had figured out Michael after she found out about Tess, because she was her brother. But she wouldn´t have guessed Max or even Isabel. " Oh wow. That´s unexpected".

Max just wanted to reply something when the door opened and Maria came into the room. She was alone and everybody was slightly stunned about that fact. They watched her walking in the middle and looking at every face.

" Alright. I talked to Kyle and he apologized to me. We´re good again. He knows he did something wrong and I want you all to listen to him now when he tries to apologize to you guys", it wasn´t a request it was an order. She let her eyes wander to Michael. " And I don´t want any kind of snide remarks or violence towards my brother, is that clear?".

Everybody agreed, some more vocal than others. After Maria was sure that it was safe for Kyle to enter, she gave him the sign to come in. Slowly and with a dropped head he walked in the room. He was scared to look at the angry face, which he knew had to be directed at him now. Quickly he glimpsed at Tess, who looked like she lost her puppy and he regretted instantly doing it. It let him feel more guiltily.

" I want to say that I´m sorry for being such a dickhead. I didn´t mean it like that. I know that´s not an excuse for the things I said, but I want you to know that I regret my behaviour terribly".

Tess, who was still standing at the window turned around and looked at him. She was still hurt about the things and she didn´t know if he could make up for it. " You should regret it. It´s not nice to attack people like that".

Kyle shuffled nervously with his feet. He knew that. But his brain and his mouth weren´t connected when he blurted this things. " Yeah. I feel aweful because of that. Believe me I would take it back if I could".

" Tess, he didn´t mean to hurt you. He was just angry with me and he let it out on you", Maria interfered, because she saw how much her brother suffered under the cold eyes of her roommate. She could understand both sides.

Michael arose from the arm chair and went to Kyle. Immediately Maria stopped in front of her brother and tried to protect him from harm. She knew her former lover and how angry he could be when someone hurt his sister.But to her surprise he told her mentally that he wouldn´t do anything and she should step away. Reluctantly she did what he asked of her. Now the both men were standing face to face. " You do something like that again to Tess and I will break every bone in your body".

Kyle nodded his head. He would say the same when it would be about his sister. " Understood".

" Then we´re clear", to prove his statement he let a smirk grace his face. After that he walked back to his place in front of the tv. In his eyes the fight was over and they could live like before.

Maria was slightly confused. Now that wasn´t the man she remembered. Rath would have been taken him and broke him in two pieces with his bare hands. Well, she was relieved that he didn´t do it, but it was strange. Shaking her head she watched Isabel and Max. They both didn´t say anything. It was like they didn´t include themself in this little argument earlier. " What about you two?".

" We aren´t angry at him. After all he didn´t attack us directly", Max had expected such a behaviour and he couldn´t be mad at that. Kyle acted still harmless, contrary to what he thought.

Isabel just nodded her head in agreement. How could they not expect a freak out? It had to be sounding crazy to a normal human being. And actually did she feel the same when she learned from her past. Only she didn´t act on her first impulse.

Maria was glad to get that out of the way. There was just still one person missing. The most important person actually. Tess had taken a defensive stance and it appeared like she wouldn´t be so accepting like the others. She would be a tough nut to crack. Maria nudged her brother and gave him a sign to give Tess the gift. Slowly Kyle went to her and handed her a little brown teddybear, who was wearing a blue sweater and a sad expression on its face. The stuffed thing was really cute and Tess´s attitude faltered slightly. Shyly she took the bear in her hands and eyed it. She found a red point on its right hand where stood push. Curious she did just that. Immediately the teddy blinked with his eyes and told her in a baby voice that he was sorry. A little smile broke out on her face, despite her effort to keep it in. But she found this gesture so sweet, she couldn´t just be mad anymore.

" Dammit? Why do you have to be so fing cute?".

Kyle´s expression brightend visibly. " Does that mean you forgive me?".

Tess faced him. She shouldn´t really, but how could she not forgive him? He was playing unfair and she like it. Boy was she far gone when she couldn´t even be angry at him. Damn boys with their sad eyes. She had to check her brain for any kind of damage. " Yeah. But just this once".

" Thank you", Kyle took this as his cue to embrace her. He was so happy that everything went good.

Maria smiled at them. A huge weight was lifted off of her heart. She didn´t want any tension between her two families. Suddenly a knock disturbed the peaceful scene. Everybody looked at the intruder leaning at the doorframe.

" I hope I´m not coming at a bad time, but I was told to come here from Nolak".

Kyle, Liz, Alex and Maria stared at the person surprised. They knew him quite well actually. With his mischievious smirking, the crazy blonde hair, the friendly blue eyes and the strange clothes, it could be just one person. " Brody?

TBC


	43. Chapter 43

**Thanx RedJewel2662 for the nice feedback. Brody will appear more now and it will be interesting to see how Michael will react to that.**

**Chapter 43 Old friends and deep buried memories**

Brody looked at the stunned faces in front of him and the confused ones in the background. All the attention was on him now and he felt like any minute a stream of light would show down on him. He was already mulling over a tune he would sing and a few dance moves. Too bad that he didn´t have a silk had and a cane, then he would start to tap dance, although he had no feeling for rhythm or could even move in sync with the music. He was told that he had two left feets, which were dancing to their own accord. However he wasn´t here to be the most popular dancer, but to protect his charges, which were staring at him like he was another species. Even though it was true, it was a little unnerving.

" Do I have something on my face".

Liz was the first to recover from the slight shock. She wondered why Brody was here and why he choose this moment to appear. He should be in Roswell and work in his UFO Center, not be here in Las Cruces. " What are you doing here?".

He shrugged his shoulders without a care, or so it seemed. " I was in the neighbourhood and thought I drop by".

Kyle didn´t believe that. It wasn´t coincidence that he came in the exact moment when the others learned of their origin. Something was fishy here. " How did you know where to find us?".

" What´s with the twenty questions? Is it such a surprise to see me here?", Brody felt slightly uncomfortable now. They were all either stunned or suspicious looking. Geez, what was up with them.

Maria stepped forward and eyed him closer. Something was strange with him. She never felt such a connection to him like now. Looking into his eyes, she remembered the same eyes begging her to stay in the castle on Antar. " Larek?".

Brody smiled at her. He was happy that she still knew him, even if his appearance was a contrast to his former self. " You still know my name. I´m honoured".

Without saying anything Maria threw herself in his arms and squeezed the life out of him. She finally noticed how much she had missed him actually. She was glad that he was still alive and breathing and here with her. Gushily she pushed herself a bit away from him and kissed him. " I´m so happy to see you".

" Yeah I can say the same to you", Brody was relieved that he even could still form a whole sentence. The small kiss had almost blown his boxers away. Halleluja, if he would known how she would react to his appearance he would have told her sooner, before Michael even came into the picture. Damn no wonder Rath couldn´t keep his hands off of her. Lucky bastard.

Liz, Alex and Kyle watched the scene with a mix of confusion and dawning. Confusion about the weird behaviour from Maria and dawning that Brody was probably someone from their kind. But if that was the case, why didn´t he say something to Maria? Suddenly they got ripped away from their thoughts through a low growl behind them. Simultaneously they turned to Michael, who was standing in front of the arm chair he sat earlier and glared at the new arrival. His eyes seemed to be darker and a vein in his throat was pulsing dangerously. Oh Oh. Slowly all three stepped a little back, in case it could get ugly in the next minutes or so. They didn´t know what Michael´s deal was at the moment, but they weren´t too keen on finding that out either.

Brody looked over Marias shoulders and detected his former best friend shooting daggers at him with his eyes. Bloody hell, it didn´t matter which life they would be living, Michael would always be a greedy little bastard when it came to his mate. " So I see you haven´t changed a bit".

" That´s because you´re still after my girl", Michael walked calmly towards the other man. His friendly voice didn´t match his threatening appearance and everybody watched interested what would happen next.

Brody moved Maria a little to the side. He didn´t want her to be in the middle of this. With a smirk on his face he met the glare. If Michael wanted to make him scared, he choose the wrong moment for that. They weren´t on Antar and here on earth the rules were a little different. " I just know that you can´t keep a girl like her".

Michael stopped in front of him. They were practically nose to nose. Neither of them wanted to back down from the other or give up. " What do you know about that? As I recall you didn´t have a girl for longer than a sneezer".

" Great. A pissing contest", Maria rolled her eyes at them. They were behaving like two idiots. She wondered why she hung out with them. They were so immature. " Could you both act just for once like grown ups?".

Brody and Michael turned to her with the exact confused expression on their faces. After that they faced each other and started to laugh. Then they gave the other a manly hug and slapped their backs at it.

" What brings you here?", Michael broke away first. He still couldn´t believe that Larek was here with them. He thought he wouldn´t see his best friend ever again.

Larek shrugged his shoulder. He didn´t know what he was supposed to do here. " I got a call from Nolak. He told me I was needed here and so I came".

Alex stepped now in the middle of the conversation. He was slightly confused about this situation. " Wait! Hold on for a minute. I don´t understand a few things here", he turned to Brody. " If you´re one of them, why didn´t you say something? I mean you know about Maria all along and you never made an indication that you could answers a few of her questions".

" Nolak told me to keep my mouth shut until he thought it was best to tell everybody the truth. Strangely I had to agree with him, for once", Larek had wanted to tell Maria so much as soon as she started to bring him his lunch, but he knew it wasn´t the right time. Instead he tried to keep an eye on her. With time they began a great friendship, with her getting her frustation out over the stupid customers, who weren´t satisfied with her food or couldn´t decide what to eat or her relationsship with Billy. And with him listening to her voice and imagine the day when she remembered him again.

Maria knew that Larek had to have a good reason for not saying anything to her. She would have probably not even believed him when he told her the truth. " You did the right thing".

" How many of you aliens are here? Do we have to expect more?", Kyle scratched his forehead nervously. Holy Shit, how many people on this campus were actually humans? After he received a grunt from Michael, a glare from Maria and a nudge from Tess, he finally noticed how his question must have sounded. " Hey I didn´t mean it in the bad way. I just don´t want more surprises".

Larek had to laugh about him. He liked the human boy already and he was glad that he made the right decision in choosing him as Mariannas brother. He could picture them as children and he was sure that their parents had much fun with them. " It´s just us", he let his hand circle around, which meant the present persons identified as aliens, including him. " And Nolak".

Liz, who was quiet all the while, came suddenly forward. There was a question that bothered her. " Why Earth? I mean there are many other planets in the universe, but why did you choose this planet?".

" Because it was like Antar. The living conditions and the atmosphere. Except for the,sorry for the little pun, underdeveloped race, the two planets are almost identical".

Alex listened intently to that. He had been always a person, who dealt with the universe and all the possibilities. It even ingreased when he found out that one of his best friend had a gift that was out of the ordinary. " So it´s true. Every planet has a twin".

Larek looked at him impressed. He thought he was the only nerd in this bunch. He was glad that it wasn´t like that. " Yeah. How do you know that?".

Alex rubbed his neck uncomfortable and a slight blush grazed his face. " I watched Star Trek".

" Don´t tell me, you´re on of those trekkies?", Michael faced the embarrassed teen with an amused glance. How someone could watch this shit was beyond him.

Tess turned to her brother with a mean twinkle in her eyes. " So. He probably can´t recall every line from Star Wars like someone, who should remain unnamed"

Michael pointed a finger at her. " Hey, don´t you dare mock Star Wars".

" Yeah. I loved Han Solo. He was so manly and hot with his lightsaber", added Maria. She was probably the only female on this planet, who dreamed to be a Jedi someday. Every other girl wanted to be Princess Leia and marry either Han or Luke.

Liz wrinkled her nose at that. She couldn´t stand Han Solo, he was always so rash in everything. He didn´t think about the consequences. " I was more into Luke Skywalker".

Isabel couldn´t agree with both. The movie wasn´t for her. She hated science fiction. Now Cruel Intentions, that was a great movie. It was at least realistic.

" How can someone not love Star Wars. Think about Princess Leia in her golden bikini with the leashes around her neck", the smile on Kyle´s face told everything. He looked at Tess and imagined her in the same dress. Yeah, that had something. Maybe he could persuade her to try it on for him someday.

Michael, Max and Alex nodded enthuastically at the same time. That was a huge part why they watched the movie actually. That and the action.

Tess just shrugged her shoulders. She liked Star Wars, but it wasn´t a movie she had to see that often. She rather watched sad movies. " I liked the Ewoks", after everybody glanced at her amused she glared at them. " What? I found them cute".

" Well, I don´t think I was send here to listen to you discuss science fiction movies. So what´s up?", Larek didn´t have too much time on his hand right now. The UFO Center was in the process to be decorated for a convention in a few days and he couldn´t let his employers too long without surveillance. They would probably make more mess than before and he couldn´t let this happen, again.

" Our dear Marianna had a question about the choosing of the mothers", without anyone noticing it, Nolak had stepped into the room and was now standing at the wall near the door with a stoic expression on his face. " She seemed really upset about it and I thought you would be better at explaining it to her".

Maria glared at him. All right, she didn´t exactly react calmly to the news, but that didn´t mean that he had to call the cavalry. How did he think they would behave when they learned about their past? Be all happy and smiling about it? Or that they would slap their foreheads and say " of course, why didn´t we think about that". He had to know that it could end in a argument or that a few of them would react strongly. Especially with Michael and her. No matter how they grew up, part of their former selfs was still in them. " What did you expect? You dump this information on us and think we will swallow it, just like that?".

Larek and Michael both turned to Nolak. They knew that it wasn´t smart to piss Maria off, because then it would get ugly really fast. Quietly they tried to back away. When hell broke loose they didn´t want to be near it.

" Actually yeah. I thought you were ready to know the truth about yourself. Obviously I was wrong about that", Nolak was close to smile. It had been always a pleasure to see her in this condition. She was fun to watch. Well, when she argued with Rath, that is.

Maria was trying to keep calm. Slowly she counted to ten before she faced the man in front of her again. Why was he treating her like a child? She wasn´t just some dumb human teenage girl. " Well excuse me if I didn´t react properly. I´ll remember to look it up how to react in this situation if something like that should happen again".

Nolak finally lost his patience with her. Usually he was a pretty peaceable person, only Marianna could change that within seconds. And some part of him was glad that it was like that, because it meant she wasn´t so different than her past self. " Don´t you dare get sarcastic with me, young lady! We have taken much risk in creating you again and find a safe place, so that you could grow up peacefully".

" Shut up! Both of you", even if it was entertaining to watch Nolak show some emotions, Larek knew they weren´t here to fight. He pointed with his forefinger at Maria. " You go in the red corner", then he pointed the same finger at Nolak. " And you in the blue corner".

Maria and Nolak turned surprised to him. They hadn´t seen him ever losing his cool in front of others like that. Even Isabel, Tess, Max and Michael were stunned into silence after this. They looked at Brody like a deer caught in the headlights.

" Don´t look at me like that", it got them to shut up and that was all Larek wanted. But now he thought it wasn´t the smartest thing to do after the shocked expressions.

Maria stepped closer to him and laid a hand on his arm. She was pretty impressed with the commanding tone in his voice. Maybe he wasn´t such a miserable soldier like they all thought. " Hey, that was just a joke. We weren´t serious".

Larek faced Nolak and saw him nodding in agreement. Slowly he drew his attention to Maria again. " You mean I made a fool of myself for nothing?".

" I wouldn´t say that. I saw another side of you and I liked it".

Lareks complete expression changed immediately at that. His face seemed to glow and a smile broke out on it. She shouldn´t have said that. Now he had so much fantasies in his head about her doing what he told her and they weren´t G-rated. " You really liked that?".

Maria noticed from the corner of her eyes that Michael glared at her. Although she hadn´t done anything wrong he seemed to be seething. Let´s see how much he could take before he exploded. " Yeah. Got me extremely hot".

Larek didn´t escape the fact that his best friend was close to strangle him either and he wanted to see how far he could go before it would get to dangerous for him. Besides he loved to provoke him in any way he could. But before he could even open his mouth to reply something that wasn´t for underaged people, he was interrupted.

" That´s enough", Michael put himself between them and pushed Maria slightly behind him. He didn´t like it when someone touched his things and it was worse when it was something he loved. " What is wrong with you? You are here to give us information and nothing more".

Nolak detected the tension in the room. Oh Oh, that wasn´t something he had to see right now. " I think that´s my cue to leave", without waiting for an acknowledgement he disappeared quickly through the door.

Maria didn´t even realize that someone was gone. All she could focuse was the thought that Michael was treating her like piece of land. She wasn´t an object to fight over nor a property of someone. She was her own woman and she could make her own decisions. Hello, she was a woman of the new millenium. Angrily she stepped around him and placed herself in front of his body. " How dare you push me aside like some little wifey. I´m not your possession all right. I can do whatever I want and with whoever I want".

Michael stumbled back a little from the force of Marias finger, which was poking in his chest the whole time she spoke. The fire in her eyes and the quiver of her ala of the nose got him that distracted that he didn´t hear a word she just said. But he didn´t care. For a moment he imagined her pushing him into the nearest wall and attacking his lips with her own. He could even feel her hands ripping his clothes from his body and her fingernails scratching his skin. Just as she bit in his neck in passion, he was thrown from his fantasy through a loud cough. Instanly he came back into the reality and saw Maria looking at him expectantly. Her arms were crossed over her breasts now and her foot was tapping on the floor. Instead of replying, well he didn´t even know what she said him, he did what his instinct was telling him. He grasped her shoulders with his strong hands and pulled her hard to him. Before Maria knew what happened he already had her trapped in his embraced and kissed her furiously. At first she tried to resist him and push him away from her. But after a few seconds she gave into her longing and snaked her arms around his throat. Even if her mind told her not to do it, her body was weak. Besides she shut off her brain the moment his lips crashed against hers. Encouraged through the response of the kiss Michael let his hands wander down her back until he grapped her ass and pulled her deeper at his groin, which earned him a moan from her.

Liz, Alex and Kyle had to look away embarrassed, while Max, Isabel and Tess grinned about the picture. It was nothing unusual for them to see these two in this position. More than once they saw much worse things, things they didn´t needed to know about them. Larek eyed his watch on his wrist impatiently. Great, he didn´t have much time and now he had to observe this mating session. Like he hadn´t watched this enough on Antar. " Hey, knock it off. You can still screw each other when I´m gone"

Finally Michael and Maria broke the kiss, actual aware that they weren´t alone. Slightly red around the nose they both looked shyly to their friends, who made them blush more with their expression.

" Nice of you to join us again", Larek was glad that they even heard him this time. He already thought they would rip each others clothes of their bodies every moment.

Maria walked away from Michael, because she didn´t trust herself to jump him after all and made her way to the couch. She was relieved that she could even still use her legs, cause they felt like jello. Her heart was threatening to break out of her chest and her mind was a little fuzzy. And yet she never felt so alive like right now. Holy Moly, she must be dead from the neck up to give this up. Even if she had a good reason for that. Boy did he have a tongue and he also knew how to use it. " What did we talk about again?".

Michael strutted with a swollen with pride chest to the nearest wall and leaned against it. A cockily smirk was gracing his face and his eyes were sparkling happily. He felt really really good right now and a little uncomfortable in his tight jeans. But all in all he couldn´t be better.

Larek watched him with an amused expression. That boy had it so bad that it was a wonder he could restrain himself after this obviously mindblowing kiss. " So kiddos, now after I finally have the attention of you again, I can actually do what I was send here for", he made a little pause and then turned to Maria. " You wanted to know why I choose your mothers, don´t you?".

" Yes. I mean there are so many people here on this planet and I just wanted to know why you choose exactly these women", Maria had finally switched on her brain, although she was still slightly dizzy from the kiss and the scent from Michael on her clothes didn´t help either.

" We didn´t just randomely pick some women if that´s what you´re thinking. We observed many women over months and then made our decision. It wasn´t easy, because we wanted you to grew up seperated from each other, but not too far away in case something went wrong", Larek let his gaze wander around. He wanted to see if everybody was still following him and after their expression it seemed like it was so. " Nolak left the decisions in my hands, which women we would take and I think I didn´t choose wrong. Every couple was like your parents on Antar".

Michael snorted really loud at that. Great revelation, just in his case he hadn´t nothing of it. His parents died when he was nine and all he ever had was his sister. He couldn´t count on his grandfather, because he was never around. If not for the servants, he would still not know how to treat a girl. Everything he learned about sex, dates and girls came from either Rosalita the housekeeper or Jose the gardner. " Well maybe that fits to the others, but not to Tess and me. We grew up without parents".

Larek faced him. He could see the hidden emotions behind the mask of indifference the other boy wore. He could sense that the death of his parents still bothered him. He knew about the incident in which Cindy and Jason were killed. " I´m sorry about that. But we couldn´t factor in an accident in this plan".

" Why of all things did you choose Roswell for Maria?", Kyle noticed that it was a topic for Michael that should rather be discussed another time and in private. Hence he threw a question in the mix that would draw the attention away from the tension.

Larek grinned. He remembered the day he found a small slip of a girl, who was despite her short size capable to take down men twice as big as her with just her mouth. She had the ability to hold the attention of a whole room without doing anything. All she had to do was walk past the men and they all kneeled at her feet, begging her to go on a date with them. Strangly she never made the impression to notice all the males watching her or that she liked it. " Because that was where Amy Valenti was living. She was so much like Marianna that I had to take her, although she was still so young".

" You know the name of our parents?", Isabel had been quiet throughout the whole time, because she thought it was better to listen. But now she was rather surprised about this fact.

" Of course. We didn´t just abduct them and put our needles in their bodies. We studied them at first. What they did for their living, how many friends they had, how the relationship was with their parents, if they had siblings and if they were able to take the risk of raising very powerful children".

Maria was relieved that her mother wasn´t just part of a science project and now that she could think about it clearer she understood their decision. Although she looked like her father, her character came from her mother and it wasn´t that different from her former self. " When you kow everything about our parents, why didn´t you take another woman with just one baby for me?".

Larek shook his head smiling. He heard the same question from Nolak years ago and he wondered if he put some essence of him in Mariannas package. " Because I wanted you to have a twin, too. I wouldn´t have liked the idea of everybody having someone, just not you. It wouldn´t have been fair".

Maria turned her head in the direction of her brother. He was intently listening to the things Brody told them. She was glad that she had a sibling, in fact she had two of them. But after all she knew now, she wasn´t so sure if it was correct to involve them in her life. It would have been better if she would have grown up as a single child. " Great. Next time could you choose another brother for me? Someone who doesn´t quote Buddha all the time?

" You should be glad to have me as a brother", spouted Kyle indignantly. Why was she so against his religion? He only quoted Buddha when he thought it would fit and that wasn´t all the time. Just sometimes. And it wasn´t like he was wrong about some things the most time.

Maria made a silly face at him, a sign that she was just joking with him. In return her brother did the same to her, what suddenly dwindled into a childish war, who can do the most stupid expression.

Tess eyed her roommate and then her boyfriend. Embarressed she hid her face behind her hands. What was thinking dating this guy? " Holy Moly. I must be sick to go out with Kyle".

Isabel patted her back comfortably. It could be worse for her, like having a date with Max. She loved her brother, but he was the most boring person she knew. " Maybe we should start looking for older men?".

" What are you talking about? No No, my girlfriend doesn´t have to look for another man. I´m all she needs", Kyle only heard the last sentence and he immediately forgot his little game with his sister. If Tess thought she could just replace him with some other guy, she had another thing coming. He wouldn´t give her up that easily now.

" If you don´t have anymore questions, then I can finally go now", Larek thought he wasn´t longer needed here and he had to get back fast to his poor UFO Center before hell broke lose there. He waisted enough at this place.

Max stood up from the couch and went to him. " How can we contact you?".

Larek pointed at Maria, who was in the process to keep her roommate from killing her brother. " Just ask her. She has my number". After that he winked in farewell to the others and disappeared with a blink of an eye.

Liz startled for a moment. She watched the spot Brody had vacated a moment ago. Intrigued she arose from her position and stepped closer to the place. Slowly she grouched down and eyed the ground. But she couldn´t see a mark or any other indication that someone had been standing there. Wow, if she hadn´t seen it with her own eyes she wouldn´t believe it.

Alex finally noticed one of his best friends kneeling on the ground. He had been too occupied with looking at the fight between Kyle and Tess and who would win it, that he didn´t even realize anything around him. " Liz, what are you doing on the floor?".

" I want to look for something. Brody just disappeared out of the blue and I want to see if I can find a reason for it", carefully she brushed her hand over the spot. It didn´t feel different than at other places. Strange. The next time she had to ask him how he did that.

Michael pushed himself away from the wall he had been leaning on and walked calmly to the obviously nosy girl. What did she think she would find? A damn branding mark in the shape of Lareks feet? Very unlikely. " You won´t find anything. He´s a space shifter. He changes places with a blink of an eye".

Finally the fight between Kyle and Tess was over and now the others took their attention from them. Instead now they looked at the pair standing in the middle of the room. Surprised they watched Liz kneeling on the ground on all fours like a dog in front of Michael. It was a funny picture and a few of them had to try to keep their laughter in. Just one person couldn´t keep his mouth shut.

" Yo Dupree, ride it", Kyle made a gesture with his arms that looked like he would slap someone on the ass.

Michael turned to them confused and saw the amused faces staring back at him. Then he looked down to Liz and actually noticed how the position must appear to them. Slightly blushing he backtracked a few steps. He didn´t want anyone thinking something wrong about him. The only girl who was allowed to kneel at his feet was Maria and she wasn´t searching for something on the floor in this moment.

Liz scrambled to her feets immediately and tried to hide her embarressement in front of the others by putting her face into her hands. She wasn´t such a girl, it was more like someting Maria would do. But never her. She was a good girl.

Suddenly Isabel jumped to her feet and looked around the room. " Hey guys, it´s still early. What do you say about going out? There´s a party in a club near starbucks".

" We can´t. We already have plans", Tess faced Kyle with a raised eyebrow. She hoped he still remembered it actually. After all he learned it could have slipped his mind.

Kyle stared confused at her. " We have?", after he saw her angry expression he corrected his words. " Of course we have".

" Cool. So we see each other later", Tess grasped the arm of her boyfriend and dragged him out.

Liz and Alex looked at each other. It seemed like they wanted to see if the other wanted to go or not. Simultaneously they both turned to Isabel. " We´re in".

Isabel faced Max. He had been pretty quiet today. Not that he was much of a talker, but he had been too silent. Even for him. " What about you big brother?".

He glanced shyly at Liz before he turned his attention back to his sister. " Count me in, too".

" I think I´ll stay in tonight and catch up missing sleep", Maria wasn´t in the mood to go into a club with too much people in there. It would just only be tight and you felt like a sardine in a can. People either stepped on your foot or barged against you. She didn´t have the nerve for this tonight. Besides she did need to catch up sleep, because she had been awake almost all night long.

Michael also shook his head at Isabel. Even if he had the wish to go out, he would prefer a joint with real live music and not just music from some tape. In this clubs was just played this crappy Hip Hop or dancemusic anyway. If he decided to let a little steam up, he would look for a rock club or something. " Go without us. Be careful".

" Will do", Isabel threw the him a kiss and then linked her arm with Liz. While they walked out she went through her closet in her mind and wondered which outfit she should wear. Alex and Max just rolled their eyes at her and followed the girls.

Maria looked after them smiling. She was glad that her friends accepted her other side and that everything went so smoothly in the end. Now she could finally stop with her worrying about finding out where she got her powers and if her friends would be cool with it. Tiredly she wiped her face with both of her hands. She felt so drained right now. The last two days had taken a toll on her and she just wanted to fall into her bed and sleep for a week. Thankfully tomorrow was Sunday and she planned already to stay in bed all day. Nothing and no one could her prevent from doing that.

Michael walked slowly towards her and placed himself at her side. She seemed to be in deep thoughts. " So now that we´re alone, I think we should continue what we started".

" Michael...".

Michael knew she would pull back again, but before she could finish her sentence he interrupted her. " Don´t. I know you wanted this kiss, too. Don´t try to deny it".

Maria turned her body around so that she now stood in front of him. She took his face in her hands and made him look at her. It wasn´t like she didn´t want the kiss or not. It wasn´t about her feelings at all. It was about doing the right thing. " I won´t deny it. I wanted it as much as you. But like you said, we got another chance to change something and I want to make it right this time".

" What has our relationship to do with anything? The war didn´t break out because of us or we didn´t die because we were together", Michael couldn´t understand her. On the one hand she seemed to feel the same things he did and on the other she was trying to supress them.

Maria saw the mixed emotion in his eyes. He was angry, confused and hurt. She knew those feelings herself. And yet she would rather suffer now then starting something that was doomed from the beginning. " You don´t even know me?".

Michael was aware of that fact. But he didn´t care about it. He knew the person she was before and that was all that mattered to him. " We can change that. But you have to let me in".

Maria sighed loudly. He could be so stubborn when he wanted. She forgot that. " All right. We try this whole friendship thing, get to know each other better and then see where it leads us. How about that?"

" I can accept that", Michael was happy about this turn. At least he could be near her without her pulling back from him. It was a small victory, but it was a step into the right direction and before she noticed it he had charmed her off of her feet. It was just a matter of time. " Does this friendship include kissing and touching?".

Maria started laughing at this question. It was so like him. But despite it she found it sweet. At least he had the courtesy to ask beforehand. " No kissing and no touching. Except if it is unavoidable".

Michael groaned sorely. She took all the fun out of the game. How did she think this would work with him? He couldn´t just not touch her in any kind. The rules were stupid. " This already sucks".

With a smile on her face Maria patted his cheek with her right hand. " You´ll make it. I´m sure of it". Then she turned around and made her way to her room. Her bed was calling for her and she better listened.

Michael stayed for a few moments longer and watched her walking away from him. Someday he would punish her for teasing him. Yeah, someday she should watch what she was doing, because payback was a bitch. And he already knew what he would do with her.

TBC


	44. Chapter 44

**Thank you RedJewel2662 for the nice review. A little warning beforehand. Some things in this chapter are pretty much NC-17, because if a few graphic details. So be warned. **

**Chapter 44 Sexual Tension, Alcohol and its effect on aliens**

Tess was standing in front of her dresser mirror and put the finishing touches on her costume. She was meeting the others in a few minutes in the common room of the boys dorms for a halloween party. This year she decided for a rather button uped outfit, than she usually went for. Kyle and her wanted to do something coupley and so they dressed up as Neo and Trinity from Matrix. Her costume wasn´t that much. All she had to wear was black leather pants, which she already owned, a black top, black boots, a black coat and black sunglasses. Thankfully she had her alien powers and she could gladly forgo the black wig. Instead she waved her hand over her hair and they got shorter and darker. Her make up was light, matching this of Trinity in the movie. She was already curious how Kyle would look like in his costume. Probably as hot as always. He was such a great guy. Tess didn´t know how anybody could not love him. Well he was a typical male and often put his food in it women wise. But all in all he was the perfect boyfriend. The time they spent the last few weeks was the best of her life. They were always doing everything together. He even went to see Return to me with her again, although this time they didn´t see much of the movie actually. She could say that she was really happy, even if she found out that she had been an alien in her past life. This information was still kinda weird to her. She could remember two lifes. One on Antar and the one here on Earth. Some days she forgot about Ava and lived just as Tess. Some days she woke up confused and asking herself why she wasn´t in the castle. But it soon passed and her memories would come back. Still some part of her was sometimes looking at Max and she could see Zan in him, remember the love they shared, the fun they had. And then she would turn to Kyle and be reminded that she was another girl in another time. She even caught herself a few times calling Michael Rath and Maria Marianna. They didn´t seem to mind though. Thinking of them, she noticed they both acted pretty strange the last few weeks. She thought they would continue their relationship, seeing how much they loved each other on Antar and how much they felt attracted in this life. But nothing had happened. They went out together, watched movies, talked or made rude comments about other students, yet they didn´t kiss or behave like a couple, at least in front of their friends. Tess turned around when she heard the door open and banished her thoughts until she had more time.

" Hey Trinity, are you ready to go, I think Neo is waiting", Maria grinned at her friend. She still couldn´t believe that her brother could get Tess to wear that outfit of his favourite Movie. She was under the impression Tess was more of a princess type. But this costume looked absolute stunning on her.

Tess eyed the costume of her roommate. It was actually just a skin tight black latex suit with a little black cape. Marias hair was white and her make up just as light as hers. " And what person are you presenting?".

Maria stepped back shocked. How could Tess not know one of coolest tv heros of the world? Oh my god, she had to take the girl under her wings and show her friend her favourite cartoon. " I´m Storm", after she received a blank stare she continued. " One of the X-men".

" Oh. It looks nice", Tess wasn´t so familiar with the cartoons. As a child she only watched bugs bunny and daffy duck.

Maria grasped the arm of her roommate and dragged her out the door. " Let´s go, before I have to strangle you".

Tess only had time to take her lipstick from her dresser before she was pushed out of the room. She didn´t know why Maria made such a thing out of the fact that she couldn´t have a use for the charakters of this show. Of course she knew that a few months earlier the movie of X-men showed in the movie theatre and that it was about mutants. But other than that, she was rather clueless. Her friend was a pretty strange girl. It was like she and Michael were seperated by birth or something. They were so much alike that it was scary sometimes. Suddenly Tess was threwn out of her thoughts, when she noticed that Maria had stopped and released her arm.

" Where have you been so long?", Isabel was impatiently tapping her foot on the floor. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her expression looked scary. She could have melted an iceblock with that glance.

Maria raised her right eyebrow at the tall girl in front of her. Even if she wasn´t dressed as a princess, she was behaving like one right now. " Relax Daphne. You will be still right on time".

Isabel glared at the smaller girl, a strange contrast to her costume, which was a pink dress, a green bandana around her slender throat, pink boots and orange hair. " I´ll hope so. I don´t want to let Alex wait too long".

" He will survive a few minutes without you", Maria rolled her eyes at her friend. She still couldn´t believe that her best friend started something with Isabel. Not that she was against it, not at all. But it was a weird sight to see them both so sickly flirting all the time. Maria shook her head and then turned to Liz, which was wearing a white long dress, white boots and a hairstyle that looked like earmuffs. " I can´t believe you still have that dress".

Liz looked down at herself. She liked that costume and now more than ever, after she saw Max expression at the mention of Princess Leia. " What can I say? I love this thing".

Tess looked at her watch and finally noticed how late it was. " Come on girls. It´s time to party".

**Other building**

Alex, Max, Michael and Kyle were standing near the bar, which was actually just a two cracker barrels stacked on top of each other. The front was hidden behind a white table cloth and some guy was standing behind it. It seemd like he thought he was Tom Cruise in Cocktail by the way he was trying to let the bottles fly through the air. At some point Michael was so annoyed with it that he gave one bottle a slight nudge with his powers. Seconds later the others heard a clank behind them and loud cursing. Accusingly they turned to the culprit, who in return just shrugged with his shoulders. Max looked at his watch and wondered when the girls would finally arrive. Kyle meanwhile eyed the decoration closer. The common room was changed into a chamber of horror. Everywhere were hanging spiderwebs with real looking spiders in it, at the ceiling where chopped heads dangling, cut off legs and arms were tucked at the walls, bloodstains on the floor and the light was dimmed. Pumpkin lantern had been placed on tables and on the ground near the entrance. It looked like a real Halloween Party. Alex didn´t care about his surroundings, he was too busy with checking the door. He had to distract himself or he would kill the guy, who was in charge of the hi-fi system. The doofus was playing this hip hop shit all the time and he was close to strangle him. What was so bad about a little rock or at least pop?

" Bloody Hell! Can somebody tell my why I choose this costume? It´s hot as hell in here and I´m sweating my ass off", Michael broke the silence between the boys. He was plucking at his tight latex suit at strange places.

The others turned to him and had to laugh about his discomfort. They wanted to warn him that it could get pretty hot in this costume. But he just glared at them and they left it alone.

" I thought you didn´t want to dress up anyway?", Kyle had been envious of his roommate at first, because his friend wanted to go to the party in his usual clothes and he had to wear a damn costume. But then Michael was persuaded from his sister, who begged so long until he couldn´t say no.

Michael rubbed sweat, which was building on his forehead, away. Yeah he had been under that impression, too. That was before Maria came and looked at him with her sad green eyes. How could he have been denying that? Well, at least he had a cool costume. He liked Wolverine and he was told he looked really hot in it. Even if the suit cut all his blood circulation off of him, the thick sideburns scratched his skin and the gloves with the claws was making it hard for him to grip his drink. " You have to thank your sister for that. But I´m actually glad I don´t look like a dork like Whitman here".

Alex glared at the other boy. He didn´t look like a dork. Well a little. But it was part of his costume. He was dressed in brown pants, a green t-shirt and a fake beard, which was the clothes from Shaggy. He was a little dorky. But Isabel wanted to be Daphne and he thought Fred wasn´t so much his type, wherefore he decided to be shaggy. " Hey. At least I´m not boiling in my costume like you".

" Guys. Could you both not behave like five years old?", Max shook his head amused at them. He was feeling like the only grown up in this bunch right now. He didn´t know why Michael complained so much. It was his decision to wear this outfit, well in the known about the fact that he would be sweating in this thing.

Alex faced the other boy with a mischief twinkle in his eyes. Why wasn´t he surprised that he would kill all the fun here? His costume screamed boring. He was wearing white pants, a white long shirt and a white belt around his hips with a lightsaber. " Yes, Master Skywalker".

Kyle sniggerd behind his hands at the pun, which in return earned him a dark look from Max. " What? It was funny".

" Yeah you find something like that funny. The only one in this room with sunglasses. Tell me, is it too bright for you in the dark or is my intelligence just blinding you?".

Kyle took his sunglasses from his nose and threw his counterpart a mean look. Had this nerd never watched the Matrix? They were all walking around with their sunglasses the whole movie. It was part of their clothes, like with the guys from MIB. " No. You´re just so pretty that I have to hide my eyes before I get blind".

Michael saw that Max was in the process to retort something at that. Thankfully they were saved from a verbal exchange of blows with the arrival of the girls. Immediately when he spotted them he nudged Kyle to make him aware of it. " Our dates are here".

Synchronously the others turned their heads to the entrance just as the guy at the hi-fi system put on "Hot Boyz" from Missy Elliott. Instantly the fight over the costume or the torture of said thing was forgotten when the boys laid eyes on their girlfriends or in other cases soon to be girlfriends. Although many people were coming through the door and a few of them had pretty strange costumes, Isabel, Tess, Maria and Liz stood out from them all. They didn´t even make a big entrance and yet every male in the room seemed to stop what they were doing and watched. The girls in return didn´t seem to notice it or were trying to ignore it. Maybe it was the fact, that they were scanning the crowd for something or rather for their partners in crime. Alex, who couldn´t stand the attention from the other boys, quickly shoot his arm in the air and waved like a lunatic, which earned him some amused glances from his friends. But he ignored them, because his plan worked. The girls were on their way to them.

" Hey Shaggy", Isabel went directly to Alex and gave him a kiss on his mouth under the eyes of everybody else.

When they parted from another Alex was a little red in the face and slightly out of breath. " Hey Daphne".

Maria rolled her eyes at her best friend. The boy was so much in love that it was scary. He acted like some cartoon character and she waited every moment that hearts would be appearing in his eyes or he would start dancing like a lunatic. Smiling she faced Michael, who seemed to have the same thought about the other two. " Nice to see that you decided to join the dressed up crowd, Wolvie".

" Yeah. A rather stubborn girl was nagging so much that I got a costume just to stop it", Michael let his eyes travel up and down Marias costume. It was skintight and he could see every curve of her body. Great, now he had one more problem in this latex thing. Thankfully nothing was to see on the outside, but he was sure that he was uncomfortable for the rest of the evening.

Maria stepped closer to him and laid a hand on his chest. " I´m glad you did it. I like the feel of Latex under my fingers", to prove her point she let her hand wander over his front. Just as she was close to his bulging part of his pants she stopped and grinned evily in his face. " And I love Wolverine. He´s so manly and rough. Get´s me all hot".

Michael swallowed visibly. He was stunned that there was still some spittle left, because his mouth went suddenly dry when she looked at him with her burning eyes. He felt the heat rising in his costume and he wasn´t sure if it was the latex or the touching. His eyes went a few shades darker just imagine the things she could do or would do to him. Oh boy hopefully she was dropping this friendship thing soon, because he didn´t know how long he could still hold on. These cold showers didn´t cut it anymore and he wanted to give his hand a little rest. " Really. Then I´m glad I choose this outfit".

" Could do both not do that in front of me", Kyle was still not comfortable with the knowledge that his sister had a past with his roommate. He accepted the fact that she was not like him, but that didn´t mean he had to accept this, too. She was after all his baby sis and he wanted to protect her.

Tess, who was happily tucked under Kyle´s arm, pinched him lovingly in his side. She liked it that her brother finally found a woman for himself. He was less brooding and enjoying his life more. It had been a long time that she saw him so carefree and happy. " Let them. I find them cute".

Michael made a face at his sister. Cute! She didn´t just call him cute, did she? Hell, he wasn´t cute. But before he could voice his objections, Maria nudged him in the ribs to silence him. Surprised he turned to her and saw her stern expression. Boy, how did she know what he wanted to do? Instead of snapping at Tess like he wanted to do, he faced Liz, who was standing shyly besides Max. Both of them stared straight ahead and appeared to try not to glance at the other. It was pathetic to watch. " Hey Liz, where did you leave your costume?".

" Bite me", Liz flashed him a finger quickly. She was used to his dumb comments by now and she knew that he didn´t mean everything like he said it. Besides she had learned from Maria how she could ignore him.

Michael looped his arm around Maria and pressed her tightly at his side, much to her amazement. " Sorry can´t do. I´m already occupied. But maybe another time".

Maria sniggered behind her hand. Only Michael could get Liz to drop her good act for a few seconds and join the club of the bad girls for a while. She hadn´t even known that her best friend was capable of being nasty towards others. That was at least until she and her past lover were crashing against each other. " Be nice to her".

" I was. I just asked her a question and she went all bitchy on me. Did you not see what she did?", Michael complained. He wasn´t at fault this time. He just wanted to start a conversation. How could he know that Liz was pmsing and would start getting pissed at him.

Liz shoot daggers at him with her eyes. When she saw his smirking face directed at her she was close to explode. Now she understood Maria better. It was even a wonder she hadn´t killed him by now.

Luckily she was saved from Max before she did something she would regret later.

" Do you want something to drink?".

Immediately her expression softened at this. Smiling shyly she turned to him and noticed instantly the heat rising in her cheeks. Dreamily she looked into his soulful brown eyes. " Yes, that would be lovely".

Kyle watched the interaction between them and put his finger in his mouth to indicate he would threw up every moment. The other boys agreed with him, which was to see on their amused faces. Contrary to the girls. They just glared at them and their immature behaviour. Tess even untangled herself from her boyfriends embrace and went to Maria instead.

" Can you tell me why I´m dating this guy?".

Maria turned to her brother. He was making silly faces at the back of Max and all the others laughed about it. Sometimes he acted like he was still four and usually she found it funny. But now she thought it was just stupid. " You´re asking me? I have not the slightest clue".

Michael heard the conversation and had the urge to defend his roommate. He wasn´t the most sensitive guy, but he was trying. Besides he didn´t know why they had to harp on his friend. They were boys and they teased each other often. And usually it was Max who got most of it, because he was the weakest among them. " Hey. Leave Kyle alone".

Before either Maria or Tess could tease him about his protectiveness over his roommate, Isabel startled everybody with a piercing shriek. Surprised all turned to her to see what caused her to react like that.

" Oh my god I love this song", she ignored the stunned glances thrown her way and acted like a little girl that just layed her eyes on the most beautiful doll she had ever seen.

The girls listened to the first notes of the song playing. It was "** Independent woman part one **" from Destinys child. Tess immediately joined Isabel in her joyful screaming when she figured out what just played. Liz was more into ballads like Sarah McLachlan or Celine Dion, sometimes even a little pop. But R´n B wasn´t so much her thing, hence she wasn´t so happy about the music. Maria meanwhile nodded her head to the beat and although she like it louder and angrier she listen sometimes other things. Maybe it was the influence of Kyle, who owned every Hip Hop and Rap CD released in the last few years, but she liked some of the songs.

" We have to dance like immediately", without waiting for acknowledgement from her friends Isabel dragged Liz, because she was the closest to her, with her in the middle of the room. Liz in return grasped Marias wrist in passing by. When she had to make a fool out of herself, she didn´t want to be alone. Her best friend reacted instantly and took Tess´ hand to avoid getting kidnapped. But her roommate had been too distracted with ogling Kyle in his outfit that she couldn´t steady her. So together the two girls were trailing behind the others in the direction of the obviously dancefloor, where a few people already started dancing.

Finally Max made it to the his friends again, loaded with two cups of coke. Curious he looked around and noticed that the girls were gone. " Where´s Liz?".

Alex pointed straight ahead to the mass of moving bodies. " Your sister kidnapped her".

" Great. What should I do with her drink then?".

Kyle gratefully took the cup out of his hand and flushed it in one big gulp. " Thanks".

Michael chuckled at the expression on Max´ face. It was a mix between bewilderment and amusement. He shook his head at them both. They were acting like dumb and dumber, although it wasn´t decided who would be who. At least not yet. When he saw that they both turned their attention to other things, he let his glance wander to the girls on the dancefloor. Well to be exact his eyes were directed at just one of them. Maria was acutally just moving her hips to the rhythm, but she made it with so much passion that she never looked more sexy, especially in her costume. Here and there she laughed about something one of the other girls told her and it seemed to carry over to him. He liked her laugh, the way her eyes twinkled, her nose scrunched slightly and the sound she made, which was like a melody in his ear. Acutally he liked everything about her, even the bickering she just did with him. She always had a comeback, she never backed down from him and she didn´t take shit no matter what. He was glad that they took their time to get to know each other again. Now he was sure that the things he felt for her wasn´t just the remnants of Rath´s love for Marianna, but Michael Dupree falling in love with Maria Valenti. The last weeks with her had opened his heart and his oppinion about love. He had been so adamant that something like love only existed in novels or movies, that there wasn´t the one person, who would be everything for you or you didn´t think you could live without. He didn´t know that it was possible to look at someone and you knew immediately that you wanted to spent the rest of your life with this said person. That was until Maria teached him better. She knew more about him in a few weeks than his grandfather in eighteen years. Well maybe it was because it was easier to talk to her, after all she was just like him. Not just the alien part, but person wise. She had the same taste in music, movies and cars. She was sometimes as closed off with others as him, she didn´t trust people easily and she wasn´t scared to speak her mind. That were all traits he liked in girls. Suddenly he noticed that Maria seemed to have noticed his glance on her, because she looked directly at him with a little smile playing around her mouth. Before he knew what he was doing, the corner of his mouth turned upwards without his doing.

" Man, you´re so whipped".

Michael startled for a moment when he heard that. Slowly he faced the person who spoke into his ear. Great, didn´t have Kyle anything better do to than disturbing him. " Look who´s talking. Didn´t you go shopping with my sister last week? I think it were shoes or something other girly".

Kyle smiled cockily. Yeah they had been bying shoes at first and he wasn´t too happy about that. But afterwards he got his reward for being patient, because they both went into a really great shop filled with lingerie in all colours and materials. And he knew when a girl brought lingerie it was to show them off, which meant he got to see them on her. " No it was lingerie".

" You went underwear shopping with my sister?", Michael hit this information like a ton of bricks. Girls didn´t buy sexy dessous for themselfs, they just did that to look sexy for their lovers. Which lead usually to hot sweaty sex. No No, he didn´t want this thought in his head. Tess wasn´t like that, she was still innocent and hopefully untouched.

Alex and Max finally turned away from watching the girls and faced the show down between Michael and Kyle. They obeserved them both questioningly. Oh Oh, something was happening every moment and after the looks of it, it wouldn´t be a pretty sight.

" Why are you so shocked about that? It´s not like I will take advantage of Tess. I´m not like that and you should know it", Kyle didn´t have to be a mindreader to know what his roommate was thinking. He had been exactly like him when it came to Maria and boys. But now he knew that he couldn´t protect her from everything and she was capable of handling her life alone.

Michael was mulling over killing Kyle quickly or taking his time with it. But then his still working part of his brain told him that his friend was right. His roommate wasn´t just some dumb guy who wanted to score with Tess to get her in his bed and would forget her as soon as he had his satisfaction. Kyle had been treating his sister with respect the weeks they were dating now and as far as he knew nothing sexual had been happening. " I know and I´m sorry. That was probably the big brother in me talking. Don´t listen to it".

Kyle breath out relieved. For a moment he thought he should make his last will, because Michael would rip him into pieces and feed him to some dogs. " It´s all right. It´s not like I can´t relate, after all you´re after my SISTER".

" Yeah throw that back in my face", Michael replied grumbily. Then he threw Max and Alex a mean glare when he saw them snigger behind their hands. Like they could talk. They both were even worse than him. Alex was drooling just at the thought of Isabel and almost humping her leg when she was near. Max wasn´t even capable to open his mouth to say something to Liz, let alone ask her for a date.

**Dancefloor**

The girls were unnoticed from the boys watching them out of the corner of their eyes. Thankfully the song had changed and the guy at the hi-fi finally noticed that others might not like black music. Now he was playing " Girls just wanna have fun" from Cindy Lauper. Tess and Isabel were loudly singing the lyrics while Maria and Liz just laughed at them. They didn´t care if they would look stupid or would embarrasse themself in front of others. Tonight they wanted to have fun, just like Cindy sang in her song.

" What do you think the guys are talking about?", Liz asked her best friend. She had noticed the glances they received from them and she found it pretty unnerving.

Maria tried to look over to the boys without attracting too much attention to it. So she twirled around slowly and made it appear like it was part of her dance move. When she had her origin posture again she shook her head at Liz. " No clue. Probably us".

Liz wondered why her friend was so casual about that. Didn´t she want to know what Michael was telling the others about her? But judging after her smiling face, she didn´t care. Maybe she herself should do the same. What did she care what Max was talking about her. Even as she thought that she knew it was a lie. She cared what he thought about her.

" Why don´t you make the first move?", Maria saw the faraway look of her friend and she regnorized it instantly. Liz was in her trance like usually when she was in close proximity of Max Evans, former alien king and favourite son in law for every mother.

Liz reacted flushed at the suggestion. No, she couldn´t just go to Max and ask him for a date. She didn´t have the guts for such a stunt. She would probably start to stutter or throw up before she could even utter a hi or something. " No. I can´t do that. I mean I don´t even know if he likes me".

Maria refrained from rolling her eyes at the other girl. She was pretty clueless when it came to men. Max liked her, he was just too shy to say something. But he always observed Liz with this strange look in his eyes. " He likes you, believe me".

" What are you both talking about?", Tess and Isabel gave their voices a little rest and joined the other two girls conversation.

Maria turned to Isabel. " We´re talking about Liz asking out your brother for a date, but she´s too scared to do it, because she doesn´t know if he even likes her".

Isabel faced Liz with a smile. Her roommate didn´t have to worry about this. Her brother was always talking about her and it was never about how boring she was or how quiet she was. She was already close to choke him if he didn´t make a move. She was so sick to hear his sappy notions everytime she spoke with him. " Do it please. I beg you. If I have to hear one more time how great you are, I will probably kick his ass".

" See I told you. Now get your cute little butt in gear and sweep him off of his feet with the Parker charme", Maria was glad she had back up from Isabel. Maybe now her best friend would do something, when she already got the green light from the sister and she had to know it.

Liz breathed deeply in to quell her queasy feeling. Her heart was racing out of control and her hands were sweating like crazy. But she decided to give it a try. " Ok. I will do it. But if he rejects me I will be very pissed at you all".

Maria hugged her best friend joyfully. She was so glad that at least one of them made the first move. " You can do it. May the force be with you".

" Yeah, you can talk", Liz released the other girl and made her way to the boys. Hopefully neither Kyle nor Michael would make a sick comment about her or she would loose her bravery.

Tess and Isabel screamed a good luck behind their friend while they watched her walking straight at Max. They noticed the immediate change in his body language when Liz talked to him. Satisfied they high fived each other after they saw them both leaving together.

Maria shook her head at them laughing. These two were pretty strange girls and she was even calling them her friends. " I´m thursty. I´ll get something to drink. Anyone else interested?". After she received two shaking head, which indicated that they didn´t want anything, she pushed her way through the crowd which seemed to have enlarged in the last few seconds and went to the bar, where Michael and Kyle appeared to be in a deep conversation. Ignoring them she stopped in front of the wannabe barkeeper. " Can I have a coke?".

The guy eyed her for a moment before he began to grin. Slowly he bent closer to her. " What do I get in return?".

" You can keep your head on your throat", Maria replied while smiling sweetly at him. Was hitting on girls part of his job or did he just think he was irresistable? If they would be alone she would have punched him already. Thankfully she left her Buffy attitude in her room tonight or he would be a bloody pulp by now.

The guy laughed, thinking it was just her way of flirting. " A wildcat. I like that".

Maria was really getting annoyed with him. What part of I want a coke didn´t he understand? She only came her because she was thirsty. If she wanted to be stupidly chatted up from the side, she would have let him know it. " Good for you. But can I have my coke now!".

" You have to give me something in return first", the guy wouldn´t give up. He seemed not to crasp the concept of not interested.

Maria was just in the process to lift her clenched fist in the air and give that sleazeball something he would never forget, namely a nice print of her ring straight on his nose when she felt another presence behind her. A pretty familiar someone judging after the tingling of her body.

" She wants something to drink. You have a problem with that?".

The guy immediately stepped back from Maria and hurriedly scurried away to get her something. He didn´t want to be shredded to pieces by Michael Dupree, because he accidently was putting the move on his girl. He was scary enough at it is. Within a minute a cup filled with coke was standing in front of Maria. " Here´s your drink".

" Thanks", relieved she took a big gulp of the cold liquid. She hadn´t noticed how much she needed that. Then she turned to the person behind her, who had been so kind to save her from dieing of thirst. " Thank you. You´re my hero".

Michael smirked cockily at her. He liked hearing that, because the hero always got the girl in the end. " I could get used to this title, although I prefer the term master or god usally".

Maria tried to hide her smile behind the cup in her hand. She didn´t miss the sexual indication behind his words and it didn´t bother her anymore. She was used to it by now and knew how to handle him. " I prefer rather the term mistress myself".

" Oh please. Can´t you find a room. I don´t need to hear that", Kyle was so sick of listening to them flirt like crazy. There were things he wanted to be in the dark about his sister. Sometimes it was too much information.

Maria hadn´t noticed that her brother was still besides them. Slightly blushing about the things he just heard, she turned to him. " Sorry, we will shut up now".

Kyle held his hands up. " No need. I´m going to look for Tess", and he walked away.

" I think someday he either kills me or he hides you", Michael chuckled slightly. Poor sap, it was a hard thing to see your little sister all growing up and getting sexual active. He knew that feeling all too well for his liking. He wanted to keep the memory of Tess like she was before she started to grow into her woman body. A little girl with braided pigtails, a little tooth gap in the front and annoyance towards the other gender.

Maria swallowed the last gulp of her drink and put the cup on the bar. " I hope it´s the first. I don´t like to be a prisoner", while she talked she was desperatedly looking for the barkeeper, because she was still thirsty. But he had obviously buzzed off, afraid Michael could beat him. Great, what should she do now? Climb over the tables and risking getting hurt in the process, because the construction didn´t appear to be stable or trying to get the evening over without anything to drink. Suddenly she spied the cup from Kyle. Happily she snatched it and took a big swig from it. Immediately after the liquid was down she regretted it. Her brother had decided to take something stronger tonight. The taste was aweful and she noticed the effect of the alcohol instantly. Her sight was getting slightly blurry and the room seemed to spin around her, while the lights were getting from bright to dark. Dizzily she tried to hold onto something. Unfortunately the only thing available was Michael.

" Hey, are you ok?".

Maria shook her head for a moment, before she realized it wasn´t good to move. It was enough that the room changed his direction every few seconds. " There was alcohol in Kyle´s drink".

Michael saw that she was on the brink to crash to the ground and quickly wrapped his arms around her middle to keep her upright. He was worried, because he never saw someone get drunk so fast from a sip. " I should bring you back to your room".

" No. It´s already over. I´m feeling better", the little slur in her voice betrayed her words. She was completely drunk.

Michael looked into her eyes and noticed that the usual green color was gone and replaced with a darker shade. And then the slight glazed glance in her eyes and he knew that he had to get her away really fast. " You and I will go a little outside. Hopefully the fresh air will clear your head a little".

Maria pushed herself away from him. How dare he imply she was drunk. She was just a little tipsy. " I don´t want out. I want to stay here and have fun".

Michael tried to get ahold of her again before she did something stupid or embarrassing or both. But she just danced around him and made funny faces at him. She even had the nerve to stuck her tongue out at him, what showed that she was more effected from the alcohol than she wanted to believe. " Maria. Let me get you to your room".

" No. I wanna dance now", with that she bounced to the dancefloor, where she immediately started to move her body to the music. She didn´t even dance to the rhythm, but she didn´t notice it either. It was like she heard her own song and was shaking her torso to its own accord.

Michael scanned the crowd for his friends. Maybe the others could help him drag Maria out of here. But unfortunately neither Kyle nor Alex were in sight. He didn´t even need to look for Max, because he went away with Liz a little while ago. Dammit, where were the others when he needed them! Annoyed he made his way to his other half through the mass of bodies. " Maria. I think we should go".

Maria shook her head like a little child who didn´t want into her bed. " Come on, don´t be such a party pooper. Dance with me", and without giving Michael a time to react she snatched his arm and pulled him tightly at her body, wriggling seductively against him.

" Maria. Don´t do that to me", Michael rubbed his face desperate. She was stimulating his already boiling body to the brink of exploding and he didn´t know how much longer he could resist his instincts to grab her and do things with her he only read in books. He was aware that she wasn´t herself at the moment and that most of her actions were influenced from the alcohol, but he was after all a guy.

Maria slide down at him and let her hands follow the path along his chest. She stopped in front of the bulge in his pants and lingered a few moments there, before she moved back up again until she was in direct eye contact with him. " What am I doing to you?".

Michael noticed the sweat tripping down his face and his heart pumping painfully fast in his chest. This time it wasn´t from his suit, which had grown a little smaller. She couldn´t seriously ask him that question, could she? " Don´t tease me like that. I don´t have such a control level as Max or even Alex".

" I want to feel you lose control", she whispered hotly into his ear while her hands were sneaking around him and grasping his ass.

Michael´s eyes wided suddenly at the suggestion and the obviously statement behind her words. Oh god, either he died and went to heaven or he was still dreaming. At least he thought that until she squeezed his butt with her hands. " I´d rather not. If I want to lose control I want you there with me. Sobber and everything".

Maria stopped her dancing and her eyes seemed to be blazing. Something passed in them for a moment, which looked like hurt and anger. " You don´t want me?".

Michael took her face in his hands and pulled her closer until they were practically nose to nose. " I want you more than you can imagine. But I don´t want to take advantage of you. You´re under the influence of the alcohol and if something would happen tonight, it wouldn´t be you".

" I´m not drunk. I´m still sobber enough to know what I´m doing and with who I´m doing it", Maria wrest her face from his hands angrily. How could he think that from her? She wasn´t so.

Quickly Michael shoot his arm forward and wrapped his hand around her wrist to prevent her from walking away from him. He couldn´t leave it like this. It wasn´t his intention to hurt her or imply something that would upset her in any kind. " I´m sorry".

Maria wanted to rip his arm out of his socket, but the sencerity in his voice stopped her from doing it. Carefully she lifted her face and looked in his chocolate colored eyes. Eyes that made her knees weak in both lifes. Suddenly her legs seemed to stop doing their job and were close to let her fall. Instantly Michael placed his arms around her and held her secure in his embrace.

" I should really get you in your bed".

This time Maria didn´t fight him and agreed wholeheartly to let him accompany her to her room. Safely they both made their way out of the common room, past the last people arriving the party, couples making out in a dark corner and drunk guys laying on the floor. The cold air hit them both as soon as they stepped outside. The campus was pretty abandoned at this time, just here and there people were scurring around. But otherwise they both were alone. Michael eyed every few seconds the girl in his arm, just to be sure that she was alright. Her eyes were closed and she had placed her head on his shoulder. A small smile appeared on his face. She was so adorable when she kept her mouth shut. At that a quiet chuckle escaped him and slightly shook his body.

Maria noticed the movement under her head. " I hope you´re not laughing about me".

" No. I just remembered a joke Kyle told me this morning", it was safer for him to lie than tell her the truth. She wasn´t feeling too fit right now, but that didn´t mean she couldn´t do some damage to him or maybe some part of his body he was pretty attached to. He was rather safe than sorry.

Maria opened her eyes. Kyle told him a joke and he found it even funny? That was quite unlikely. Her brother was good in most things, but his jokes made just himself laugh. She couldn´t remember when someone else could laugh with him. " Tell me the joke".

Michael hadn´t expected that she wanted to hear it. Either she knew that he was lying and wanted to see his reaction or she was so far gone that she didn´t even notice what she was saying. Desperatedly he tried to find a joke he could tell her. However his mind drew a blank. " I can´t tell you. It´s a joke among men. You wouldn´t understand it".

" Liar. You didn´t remember a joke. You laughed about me", she had busted him and not just because he had no talent to get a lie smootly across to someone, but she had picked up his thoughts through their link, which had been getting stronger the more time they spent together.

Thankfully Michael was saved to reply something with the arrival at her door. " We´re there".

Maria finally noticed her surroundings. Oh well looky there, they were at her room and she hadn´t even realized it. " Can you open the door for me?".

Michael watched her pale face and decided to bring her to bed as well. After that he would get the hell out of dodge, before he forgot that she was drunk. " Yeah".

Slowly he pushed the handle down, still a tight grip on her in case her feet wanted to give in again and pressed his shoulder against the wood to open the door. Carefully he led her into the room until she suddenly pulled herself out of his embrace. Surprised he saw how she lifted her arm and the door shut with a loud thud behind him. A little confused he turned to her face and detected that every trace of illness was gone from it. Now she looked at him with a twinkle in her eyes that made him feel like he was the prey and she was the hunter. But before he could ask her what was going on, she had him pushed hard against the door and was kissing him with a brutal force that had him reeling. She was nipping his lips with her teeth while her hands trapped his at the door beneath his head. The handle was painfully digging into his back and he tasted blood from Maria biting to hard on his lip. But strangly he didn´t care about that. Until she stopped attacking his mouth and kissed her way down his throat.

" What are you doing?".

Maria looked up at him with a smile on her face. " If you´re asking me that, I must do something wrong".

Michael shook his foggy head. He was close to lose the remaining part of his brain that could form sentences. " That´s not what I meant. I thought you weren´t feeling to good a few moments ago and now you´re attacking my like I would be a meal and you´re starving", after he saw the guilty look on her face he knew what occured. " You tricked me".

" Are you complaining?", Maria could feel the answer already poking her. She knew he wanted it as well as her. But why did he fight against it? Why couldn´t he just let everything happen?

Michael thought about the question. He should be pissed because she lied to him just to get him into her room, to be exact in her bed. And yet he couldn´t. He wanted to get into this position from the day he saw her and more so since he knew her. But something was still holding him back. " No. It´s not a secret that I wanted this to happen. But I don´t want you to regret it tomorrow when you´re thinking clearer again".

Maria put her hands on both sides of his face and kissed him tenderly. " I won´t regret it. I promise", after all the alcohol had flown away as soon as she inhaled fresh air.

Michael now finally freed from her grip took the advantage and spun them around that now Maria was pressed against the door. " I just have one condition. This time we start it slow".

" I didn´t know that you were capable of slow. But if you want I´m game", just as long as they would get a move on. She was already fidgety and her body screamed for release.

Michael just waited for those words and without saying anything he kissed her. Not so forcefully like she did earlier, but more gently. Taking his time and just enjoy the sense of her pressed against him. Smelling her scent, tasting her and feeling every reaction of her body to his caresses. Carefully he entwined his arms around her middle and let his fingertips travel over her back. But the damn suit was getting in his way. Smoothly he took the zipper of it in his fingers and pulled it down ever so slowly. Then he took it off in the same pace and kissed every centimeter of bare skin he revealed. Maria moaned deeply in her throat when his lips graced her shoulders, down to the top her breast, which were lacking a bra, because the suit had been to tight for any kind of underwear. She almost screamed when he came to her right breast and suckled at her sensitive nipple there. Heatedly she buried her hands in his hair and pushed his head closer, while his left hand stimulated her other breast with his fingers. She closed her eyes and let herself carry away from the waves of pleasure shooting through every nerve. Nothing would ever feel so good like the things he did to her. Suddenly he released her nipples and trailed a wet path down her belly with his tongue until he came to the part, who was still clothes by her suit. Michael kneeled at the ground and took both hands to pull the rest of it down her long legs. She made a strange noise when the cold air hit her most sensitive spot. Immediately he covered it with his mouth and let his tongue circle the nub there. Now Maria couldn´t control her vocal cords anymore and she didn´t care if anyone could hear her anymore. Her legs were failing their duty and if not for Michael she would have already crashed to the ground. Her whole body seemed to be on fire and she felt like she would burn every moment. But if that would be the case, she would at least die happy. Then suddenly she climaxed so quickly that she was caught by surprise and she let a cry escape that would have even woken the dead. Michael stood up from the ground and kissed her again, sharing her taste with her.

" Halleluja! Where did you learn how to use your tongue like that?", Maria was pretty wiped out and satisfied. But she knew that it was just the beginning and just the thought of what would follow let her body tingle of joy once more.

Michael grinned mischievously at her. " From Tess´ magazines".

Maria laughed at that and it shook her complete body. " Then I should thank your sister".

" Let´s not bring her up now", Michael didn´t want to have the picture of Tess in his mind just in this exact moment or it would all be over. The last thing he needed was cooling down with the image of his annoying little sister.

Maria could only agree wholeheartly. She had actually others things that occupied her mind. Roughly she turned them around and put Michael in the same position he was earlier. Trapped between her and the door. " You´re right. I think we were just in the middle of something", to prove her point she waved her hand over his suit and let it disappear.

Now he stood in front of her in the nude and she stepped back a little to enjoy the view better. She roamed her eyes from his broad chest to his slightly hairy obviously trained belly before she stopped at his pretty big erection. Trance like she got closer to him and started kissing his throat while her hands were caressing his body. Here and there she scratched a spot with her fingernails, not to deep, she didn´t want to hurt him after all, but enough to let him know they were there. When she bit softly in his right shoulder she felt the moan vibrate in his throat. Carefully she slid her right hand down his abs until she gripped his pulsating rod. At first she lightly caressed it with her fingertips before she began to pump it stronger. Michael couldn´t control his body and pushed into her hand in rhythm with her movement. He was close to explode and he didn´t know what part of his brain was still keeping him from doing so. Suddenly she followed the path were her hand had been with her tongue all the while watching his face and admired the blissful expression on it. The first contact from her mouth on his penis was sending him almost into a heartattack. She was twirling her tongue around the head as her hand kept pumping him faster now. His hands were clenching and unclenching besides him and all his nerves seemed to be active.

" Maria. Bed".

Maria stopped what she was doing and pulled her mouth off of his dick. Her eyes glistered with happiniess, because she already knew what would be coming now. " All right commander".

**Two hours later**

Kyle and Tess had been looking for their siblings, but with no result. They both were gone and nobody had seen them. Alex and Isabel especially hadn´t been a great help, because they had been making out in his room. Max and Liz were still somewhere so they had been out of the question, too. Now they were on their way to Tess room, their last try for tonight. Frustrated Tess was close to cry, even if Kyle tried to comfort her. What could happen to Michael and Maria? They were both old enough and capable of kicking everybodies asses. He didn´t worry so much.

" Tess, their both fine, believe me".

Tess turned to her boyfriend. How could he be so calm? Her brother could have been kidnapped or killed or something. " How do you know that?".

Kyle squeezed his girlfriend tighter at his body and kissed her temple. He had a strange connection to his sister and he would be the first to know if she was in trouble. Besides he trusted his roomate to take care of her when he wasn´t around. " I just know".

" Great, now I´m relieved", Tess replied sarcastically. Like Kyle had the answers to everything. He just knew. A great help he was.

Kyle was glad that they finally came to the door of her room, because he didn´t want to get into a fight with her tonight. Everything had been going so well. Until she noticed her missing brother. Without saying anything he opened to door and immediately closed when he heard something like " yeah commander, right here" uttered from his sister. Shocked he glanced at Tess. " I found them".

Tess brightened visibly and tried to get past her boyfriend to see it for herself. But strangly Kyle blocked the door with his body. " What´s up? Did something happen? Are they well?".

" Yes something happened and they are definitely well", Kyle was sure of that, judging after the moving blanket on Marias bed and the strange noises they made. Oh, he wanted to never see something again, although he hadn´t exactly seen anything. But the imagination alone let his stomach make flip flops.

Tess watched Kyle getting paler and paler. It looked like he was on the brink to lose the food he ate. " Why do you look so sick then?".

Kyle pointed behind him to the closed door. " He and she, together. Really together".

" Together?", at first Tess didn´t understand what he just told her. But then her mind cleared and she got the indication. Oh that. Finally it was slowly time. Smiling she laid her arm around Kyle´s shoulders. " That means I have to sleep with you tonight then".

At that Kyle forget the nasty picture of his sister and his roomate doing it. Grinning from ear to ear he led Tess away.

TBC


	45. Chapter 45

**Thanks to RedJewel2662 for the nice review. And about Maria and Michael, you have to wait and read for yourself.**

**Chapter 45 The morning after**

Maria opened her eyes after she noticed something brushed her leg. Confused she looked around and wondered for a moment how she made it to her room. Stunned her glance stopped at the window, where the sun was shining brightly through it. Holy Shit, how long had she been out and why did her head feel like there was a rock concert in it? Slowly she massaged her temples with her fingers to ease the pain a little and suddenly her memory from last night came back to her. Quickly she turned to her right side and saw Michael´s peaceful sleeping face. After that she lifted the blanket a bit and like she expected, they both were naked. Shocked she faced her bedmate again and reality crashed down. They had done it? They had really done it, more than once actually. And it had been unbelievable. A smile broke out on her face, when she thought about the things they had done to each other. They had started slow like he wanted. The first time was gentle and tender. But then it went wild and they both acted out their deepest fantasies. Oh boy and how wild that had been. No wonder that she felt like a walking bruise right now. Michael was like an animal in the sack and she hadn´t been scared. On the contrary she gave it back all the same. Carefully she snuggled closer to him and examined his face. He was looking like a little boy when he slept. The mean expression he usually wore was gone and replaced with this serenity. Gently she stretched her arm out and caressed his cheek with her thumb.

_Desperate for changing  
Starving for truth  
I'm closer to where I started  
Chasing after you  
I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you_

_Forgetting all I'm lacking  
Completely incomplete  
I'll take your invitation  
You take all of me now_

She couldn´t believe that a few weeks ago she wanted to throw what they had away and pretend the passion from their past lifes had been nonexistent. Now she was glad that she didn´t went through with her plan to avoid Michae like the pest, because then she would have missed all the fun and how it was to give yourself to someone that loved you as much as you loved him. Yes, she could admit that she fell in love with him all over again and that wasn´t the remaining alcohol in her system talking. At least she could admit it to herself that she loved the big carebear besides her.

_I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you  
I'm living for the only thing I know  
I'm running and not quite sure where to go  
And I don't know what I'm diving into  
Just hanging by a moment here with you_

_There's nothing else to lose  
There's nothing else to find   
There's nothing in the world  
That can change my mind  
There is nothing else  
There is nothing else  
There is nothing else_

Maria noticed the slight stubbles under her fingertips and it brought a memory from another time at another place. She was thrown back to her first time with Rath on Antar, how she had felt when she woke up to see him watching her with a smile on his face. In that moment she had been so unbelievable happy that she thought she would burst every second. She wanted to scream her feelings from the highest mountains, so that everybody on the planet would know it. Now the feeling was even stronger, because they had no obligations, Michael wasn´t betrothed to another woman and she wasn´t scarred from the death of her mother. This time they were just two college students, who fell in love with each other.

_Desperate for changing  
Starving for truth  
I'm closer to where I started  
Chasing after you..._

I'm falling even more in love with you  
Letting go of all I've held onto  
I'm standing here until you make me move  
I'm hanging by a moment here with you  
I'm living for the only thing I know  
I'm running and not quite sure where to go  
And I don't know what I'm diving into   
Just hanging by a moment here with you

Just hanging by a moment (here with you)  
Hanging by a moment (here with you)   
Hanging by a moment here with you

Michael moved his head a bit and Maria realized he would be waking up every minute. Quickly she went back to her earlier position and closed her eyes. She didn´t want him to think she had been staring at him while he was sleeping, even if that was the truth. There should be still a few mysteries in a relationship after all. She picked up the exact moment when he came around, because the mattress moved under her. She could imagine the confused expression on his face when he looked around her room and tried to remember where he was right now. She had to keep her smile off of her face as she felt him touching her cheek. He was doing the same thing she did when she woke up. Maybe he came to the same conclusion that everything that happened last night wasn´t a dream, too.

" Maria? Are you awake?".

Great. They spent the night full of passion together and that was the way he woke her? Just nudging her and asking if she was awake? For that she would punish him, Maria style. " Just five more minutes, mom", she swatted his hand away and half mumbled into her pillow.

Michael scratched his eyebrow. Now he had been called many names, but no one ever called him mom. Oh boy, she was even harder to wake up than him and he didn´t know that this was possible. " I´m not your mom. It´s me Michael".

" Michael?", she slowly opened her eyes and looked at him still a little sleepy. Suddenly she jumped up with her torso and gripped the blanket tight around her. " Michael! What are you doing in my bed?".

Startled Michael eyed the way she was looking at him. It was like he had taken advantage of her without her consent. A little worried he tried to calm her. " Don´t you remember last night?".

Maria stared at him confused. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at him. He was so cute. " What happened? How did I get into my bed? And more important how did you get in?".

" Uhh, how much can you still remember from last night?", oh shit, hopefully her brain wasn´t function yet and she still knew what they did, it just slipped her mind at the moment. Hopefully he hadn´t done something wrong when he believed that she was sobber enough to know what she was doing.

Maria acted like she was trying to think about it. In reality she was mulling over the fact if she had to go to the laundry room to wash her clothes or if she could wait until next week to do it. " I was thirsty. My drink was empty and the barkeeper had disappeared, so I took a sip from Kyle´s cup. After that everything is blank".

Michael´s hope made a crash landing, right into hell. He promised himself to never sleep with a drunk girl again. He made this experience already and it didn´t go too well. Thankfully he was rich and his grandfather employed the most expensive and greatest lawyers of the united states or it could have been bad for him. " You tricked me into your room and then you seduced me out of my clothes".

" You make it sound like it was a bad thing. And I didn´t hear you complain last night", Maria shook her head at him. As if everything was her fault. Alright, she started the whole thing, but he didn´t do anything to stop her, which meant he wanted it as much as her.

Michael finally noticed the slight smile pulling at the corner of Marias mouth and the damn twinkling in her eyes. Quickly reality dawned on him. Outraged he attacked her with his fingers, which were tickling every part of her body. " You little witch!".

Maria tried to get away from him and his moving fingers. But he was faster and stronger. Laughing loudly she wriggled under him and made an attempt to grasp his hands to stop his assault on her most ticklish spots. " Stop it! Get your hands off of me! NO, not there!".

" Say I´m the best lover you ever had and I´ll stop instantly", Michael paused temporary with tickling her and pressed her hands down on the mattress beneath her head. His face was almost in front of hers and their lips were just millimeter away from meeting each other.

Maria looked deeply into his eyes and she saw something in there, that she always missed with Billy. He loved her, at least that was what he told her sometimes. But his eyes held never such a devotion like she just witnessed with Michael. His glance told her everything she needed to know. He even knew already that he was the best in her look. But she didn´t want to stroke his ego more. He was cocky enough as it was. " My mother told me I´m not allowed to lie and if I didn´t have anything nice to say, I should keep my mouth shut".

Michael immediately continued with his punishment and he pounced on her again. This time he changed his tactic and he slid slowly down her body until his head disappeared under the blanket. Teasingly he stopped at her hot spot, where he could already smell her lust anew and softly blow some air on it. Judging after the loud intake of breath, he had her exactly at the point where he wanted her. Instantly he crawled a little higher and shoved the cover over his head. " So. You were saying?"

Maria didn´t know if she should be annoyed with him, because he made her hot and then just stopped or if she should laugh, because he looked just too funny with his hair tousled from sleep and the blanket. Quickly she decided for the latter and smirked at him. " You´re not playing fair".

" And? I´m just giving back what you did to me with your constant teasing of my already hormone driven body all those weeks. I was afraid that I would either freeze my balls off with the cold showers or my hand would develope scarf skin from the many use", Michael had intended to get even with her and now he was in the position to do it. And he would enjoy every minute of it.

Maria started to pout at him. Was it her fault that he had no control over his lower region? She had no idea how hard she had made him just only by being near him. She didn´t treat him any different than Alex or even Kyle and they never bitched at her for arousing them. Well of course not, Kyle was her brother and Alex was like another brother. " You´re sounding like I would have done that on purpose. I didn´t know that I made you so uncomfortable in my presence".

Michael knew that. It wasn´t even her fault. She was very much in the dark about the way other people, especially boys, were regarding her. She never noticed the following glances when she stepped into a room or the sniffing when she passed by or even the hunger in some eyes that were mentally stripping her off of her clothes when she walked, her hips swaying from side to side and her butt bouncing slightly with her steps. He often wondered what was going through most of those heads, but he was usually thankful that he didn´t know it, because then his jealousy would appear and in that condition he could be unpredictable. " Don´t try to lie. I know exactly what you had in mind. You wanted to drive me into madness with your torture".

" Fine, you caught me. What are you gonna do about that now?",

The treacherous twinkle in his eyes and the poking of a certain part of his body told her very much everything. Just as Michael was in the process to disappear under the blanket to get the party started again, there was a knock at the door. Grumpily he threw a mean glare at the offending noise, but didn´t let himself keep away from the task at hand. Maria in the meantime had lost all her passion she still had a few moment ago.

" Maybe we should open the door?".

Michael looked into her eyes. They were back to her lighter green, all traces of her hunger was gone from them. The only thing he could see in them now was slight worry. " Don´t get distracted. Everybody outside will lose interest and go away soon".

Maria wasn´t so sure about that. Maybe it was Tess, who wanted back into her room to get something. Or it could be Liz, eager to tell her everything that happened last night with Max. It couldn´t even be ruled out the possibility that it was Kyle looking after her. " And if not?".

Michael groaned loudly from disappointment. Now he lost all interest in morning activity, too. Great, he had to remember to thank whoever was standing in front of the door. A tad bit pissed he crawled down from Maria and let himself slump besides her. Stubbornly he crossed his arms over his naked chest and stared straight ahead, while he tried to cool down.

" Don´t be mad. I will make it up to you tonight. I promise", slowly she took his face in her hands and gave him a tender kiss. Not too long and not too intense. She hadn´t brushed her teeth yet and she didn´t want to scare him away, because she had bad breath.

Before Michael could say something, another knock was heard at the door. This time it was louder and more persistent. Followed from two quiet voices, obviously discussing what to do. The female won the fight. " Maria? Michael? Are you both awake? Can we come in?".

Maria had to keep her laughter in when she saw Michael´s expression at the sound of his sisters voice behind the door. Thankfully he didn´t have the power to kill someone with his glance, because then Tess and apparently Kyle would have been dead be now. Giggling slightly she threw the blanket aside and stood up.

" What are you doing?", Michael hissed quietly while watched how her body arose in a standing position. Now he could finally see her in all her naked glory. The way her flat stomach rose and fell with every breath she took, her small breasts bobbed with her movements and her golden hair that seemed to be dancing on her back.

Maria glared at him playfully. What did it look like she was doing? Obviously it wasn´t acting like they weren´t there. Grinning evily at him she turned around and walked to her dresser. There she snatched a black pantie and a big footballshirt she stole from her brother years ago. Quickly she put the clothes on and made her way to the door, much to the disbelieving glances of her lover still lying under the cover in her bed. With a deep breath she opened door and smiled at the visitors, all the while trying to appear like she slept alone last night, although her friends knew about her new roommate already. " Hey guys".

Tess smirked knowlingly at her friend and her eyes were sparkling happily. A slight pink blush was gracing her cheeks and she was emitting a pretty strange glow. " Hey girlie".

" Why did it take you so long to open the door? Did we interrupt something?", Kyle was pretty conspicuously trying to look over his sisters shoulder. Alright, he knew that she was sexual active and he had prove for that now. But still a part of him wanted to forget last night and be in the dark about Marias sex life again.

Tess elbowed her boyfriend immediatly. After she heard a satisfying ouch she paid attention to her roommate once more. She wasn´t here to snoop, but to get some of her clothes. All she had last night was her costume and now she wanted something not made of leather, which would burn her in the blazing sun. " Can I come in for a minute? I just want to fetch a few clothes and then I´ll be gone and you continue whatever you were doing".

Maria finally stepped aside to let her roommate in, while keeping an eye on her brother. He looked at her like he realized that she wasn´t his little sister anymore. Something told her that he saw something he wanted to erase from his memory. Slowly it dawn on her what it could be" You saw us".

" Not exactly. I mostly heard you and it was enough for me", Kyle felt uncomfortable discussing his discovery with her. Besides he was trying to push the picture in the back of his mind and lock it there for all eternity.

Maria sensed the heat rising in her cheeks and she was breaking the eye contact with her brother. Oh god! She could never look at him again without imagine what he was thinking when he glanced at her. Holy Moly, to top of it all she did it with his roommate. Poor Michael, he had to go back to his room sometime soon and after Kyle´s expression it wouldn´t be pleasant for him. " I don´t know what to say besides I´m really embarrassed".

Kyle smiled at her. He was glad that he wasn´t the only one who felt that way. But he had to admit if his sisters wanted to have sex, he was happy that it was Michael and not some punk, who would hurt her in the end. " Let´s forget what happened all right? I didn´t see anything, except the moving blanket. And I want to leave it at that".

" Okay", Maria was relieved about the outcome. She could live with that and her happy mood came back again. Slowly she turned around to see what her roommate was doing so long. Surprised she watched her talking to her brother. She was giving him a backpack, which Maria hadn´t noticed. Then she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, stood up and took a bag with her clothes. Grinning like an idiot she made her way back to her boyfriends side.

" So we´ll leave you two lovebirds alone again. Kyle and I have plans. We´ll see each other tonight then".

Before she however could turn around and go, Isabel and Max were fast coming in their direction. They seemed to be obviously in a hurry and judging after their confused faces it wasn´t something nice. But what was new. Immediately Maria shoot a look at Michael, who quickly jumped to his feets, the blanket tightly wrapped around his hips and stepped besides her. Slightly out of breath the siblings stopped in front of their friends. Max was the first to recover. " Nolak wants to see us immediately".

Tess turned to her brother and her roommate. They were the only ones who had the most contact with Nolak and they would have the slightest clue what was going on. But they both seemed to be in the dark about it, too. Curious she faced Isabel again. " Why?".

" He didn´t say. He just said and I quote literally", Isabel made quotation marks with her finger, " Get the others and bring their lazy asses in the gym asap".

Kyle watched the faces around him. Something was happening and he had a feeling that it wasn´t exactly anything good. " That means I´m seeing what Liz and Alex want to do today".

Tess eyed her boyfriend and saw the disappointment in his face. She couldn´t blame him. She had been looking forward to do something with him and now it was appearing that they could forget it. Carefully she squeezed his hand, which was holding hers tightly. " You can bring me to the gym if you want. Maria and Michael are looking like they would need a little time to dress more properly".

Finally Isabel and Max noticed the state of undress of the other two. Michael was holding a white blanket around his hips and Maria was just wearing a big shirt. Instantly they realized what happened the last night and what they could have disturbed right now. Max cleared his throat a little uncomfortable " All right. I think we´ll be waiting at the gym for you".

His sister nodded eagerly before she hurriedly walked down the floor closely followed by Max and lastly Kyle and Tess. Maria couldn´t hold back her chuckle any longer after she saw them all disappearing so fast.

" Why are you laughing?", Michael was still trying to find a reason for a meeting with Nolak, while he tied the end of the blanket together so that he didn´t need to hold it anymore. Obviously Maria had something other in mind or else she wouldn´t have a reason to laugh.

Maria closed the door and turned to him. No wonder Isabel´s cheeks had graced a slight blush and Max was avoiding eye contact. Michael was living proof what occured here in this room last night. Slowly she stepped closer to him and stroked his chest. " Because all of our friends know that we had sex and I think your attire made a few of them uncomfortable".

Michael watched the path Marias hand was making on his naked flesh. So the others knew about them? He didn´t mind about that. They had something against his half naked state? That was their problem. They should have called and not just barged into this room. " And? Does it matter? ".

" Actually yes. Because one of them is my brother and he wasn´t to keen on the fact that his little sister isn´t as innocent as he thought", Maria still saw Kyle´s expression in her minds eye. He was torn between pummeling Michael for touching her or holding her prisoner until she was too old to have sex anymore.

Michael put his arms around her and pulled her deeper at his body. She was exaggerating big time. Kyle knew she wasn´t so innocent anymore and he accepted it as long as he didn´t think too much about it. But now he had visual proof and that was an entire different story. Michael was exactly the same way. He had seen the glowing on his sister and he immediately realized that he wasn´t the only one who got lucky. But he hadn´t said anything, because as long as he didn´t witness Tess and Kyle having sex, he could still picture that she was still untouched. It was a strange logic from a brother and no other would understand it. " You and innocent? That´s a conflict in itself".

Maria looked up from her spot on his chest. She pretended to glare at him and if he wouldn´t have trapped her arms at her side, she would have already put her hand on her hips. " Are you calling me a slut?".

" NO! Of course not! I wasn´t even thinking that", Michael felt sweat forming on his forehead. Nervously he wanted to brush one of his hand through his hair, but unfortunately both of them were occupied with holding Marias arms prisoner. He wanted to avoid getting hit or worse castrated. Dammit! No matter what he would say now, he would dig his hole even deeper. " I think we should get dressed. We don´t want to anger Nolak more".

Maria raised her eyebrow. She would love to get dressed, but she couldn´t, because Michael kept her trapt in his embrace. " Then I suggest you release me so that I can do that, commander".

Michael pulled his arms carefully back from her and his glance didn´t waver from her arms, in case she would start hitting him with her tiny fists. He knew her from both lives and she was more dangerous than she appeared. Besides he made an acquaintance with her dark side and he wanted to avoid doing that again. Slowly he stepped back from her, always keeping her in his sight. He almost tripped over his backpack and fell on the bed. Thankfully he could prevent himself from making him look like an idiot. Meanwhile Maria watched him with a touch of amusement. She didn´t know that she made him so terrified of her. Poor littler her. She wasn´t so mean like she appeared. In realitly she was just a little teddybear, looking for someone who would cherish her. Ok, she had to admit sometimes she could be a snake, splashing her poison around and attacking everybody. But those slips were few and wide apart. And she had an excuse for them. She could always blame it on pmsing. An advantage for being a girl. Five days a month you can be bitchy, depressive or both and nobody holds you responsible for that.

" Why don´t you stop staring at me like I will attack you any minute and put clothes on already", she had to busy herself with something or she would start laughing. Hence she went to her closet and looked for her something to wear. She settled for some white capri pants, a black t-shirt and her favourite sneaker. Slowly she put the clothes on and listened to the sound behind her.

Michael had finally managed to dress himself, although it had been difficult. It seemed like Tess confused some of his t-shirts with those of Kyles. And his roommate was a little smaller than him and didn´t have such broad shoulders. What lead to the fact, that the shirt he was wearing stopped at his belly button and almost burst at the seams when he moved. " I think there was a mix up".

Maria turned around at that. " Why?", but then she saw the shirt covering only half of Michaels torso. Immediately she broke out in laughter. She tried to hide it behind her hands, but she was just too loud and her whole body shook from it. He was looking ridiculous in his outfit. The jeans was perfect, defenitively one of his own. But the white T-shirt was too tight, too small and let his arms stand up from his body.

" Yeah. Now you can laugh! I don´t find that funny. I feel like a head cheese in this thing".

By now Maria couldn´t hold herself upright anymore. Her stomach was hurting badly from all the laughing and she was sure that she would have sore muscles tomorrow. It wasn´t just the shirt anymore, it was the expression on Michaels face that was more funny. A picture from Rath in the same situation popped into her mind and his expression was exactly like Michaels. " Maybe you gained some weight?".

Michael glared hateful at her. She had too much fun with him right now and he didn´t like it. She was almost sitting on the ground and was holding her stomach with her right hand. Tears were streaming down her cheeks and her head seemed like it would explode any minute. " Are you through soon or should I tell Nolak that you´re not able to attend to his meeting, because you were bitten by a laugh bug?".

" You´re no fun, do you know that?", Maria breathed deeply in and out to get rid of her hysteric laughter. Then she wiped the tears from her eyes, before she fixed her clothes and straitend them again. Suddenly she caught sight of her hair in the mirror on the dresser besides her. Shocked she noticed that it looked like a nest was sitting on her head. " Why didn´t you tell me that my hairstyle looked like the blow dryer exploded!".

Now it was Michaels turn to laugh. Payback was a bitch and he enjoyed it. " I didn´t notice it actually".

Maria turned to him and threw him one of her meanest glare. How could he not see that? Was he fing blind, or what? Quickly she tried to unravel the knots in her hair with her fingers. But it were just to many and she was too upset. " I´m going to the washroom", out of the corner of her eyes she saw her toilet bag and she took it with her, because if she already was doing her hair she could brush her teeth, too.

" We don´t have time for that!", Michael screamed after her. But then he looked in the mirror on Tess dresser and realized that his hair was everywhere, just not where they were supposed to be. Without saying anything he snatched his backpack and followed Maria.

**The gym**

Nolak was standing in the middle of the gym with his arms crossed over his chest and a angry expression on his face. His right foot was tapping on the floor in a hypnotic rhythm and it seemed to echo through the whole room. Isabel, Max and Tess had made themself comfortable on a few mats laying around. The gym wasn´t that big and there wasn´t much in it, except for rings at the ceiling, wall bars, a door which was leading to the equipment room and one side of the room had two big windows. But other than that it was pretty bare.

" What is taking them so long?", Nolak was almost at the end of his patience. He eyed his watch for the hundreth time already and watched the time ticking away. Damn he had still other plans tonight and he didn´t have the time to waste for his fosterlings to appear.

Tess, Isabel and Max turned to each other with a knowing smile. Maybe they were doing the nasty again. It had been obvios that they had interrupted something with those two and after their experience with their past lifes it was a no brainer what would happen the moment they were left alone.

Suddenly the door to the gym flew open and the last guest were finally making an appearance. They were both smiling innocently at Nolak while trying to act normal. Maria even had a slight redness around her cheeks. " Sorry for coming so late. We had some problems with the washroom".

" The washroom?", Nolak watched them both with a raised eyebrow. Now he expected some excuses, but that was new, even to him and he was after all a professor at his university on this campus for over 10 years. He already heard the strangest things, but he reminded himself to keep that in mind for the future. Then he realized that Maria said " we" as in her and Michael. What was he doing in the girls building? On second thought he didn´t want to know it acutally.

Michael planted his butt next to his sister while he tried to keep his sniggering to a minimum. Yeah the washroom incident will be forever stuck in his mind. At first when they stepped foot in it, a few girls began to scream as soon as they noticed him, because they just came out of the shower. After that he waited outside the door until Maria gave him the sign that he could enter again. Then they brushed their teeth side by side, whereas they made funny faces with a mouthful of foam. Just as they managed to fix their hairstyles, Michael remembered his dilemma with his t-shirt that was two sizes too small for his frame. Maria had rolled her eyes at him, but promised to help. Slowly she had placed her hands on the hem to let it grew wider and longer. While she was busy with making his t-shirt bigger, Michael watched in the mirror. The way Maria stood in front of him looked like she was doing nasty things to him. Instantly he noticed his jeans getting a little crowded. Without knowing what he was doing he grasped her and pushed her hard against the sink behind her and kissed her forcefully. At this point the details got a little fuzzy and he just remembered that somebody came through the door and they left the washroom pretty embarrassed. " Yeah. It was pretty full of naked girls and we had to wait until I could enter".

Nolak shook his head at him. Hopefully that was the only information he would get. He didn´t need to know more. It was one things to assume the sexual life of someone, but he didn´t want proof for that. " All right. Now that we´re all here now, I can tell you the reason for this meeting". He watched the faces around him and was pleased that he had the attention of all. " Larek and I have finally decided to start with the training. We thought we gave you enough time to adjust to your new situation and that it was time".

Immediately Michael and Maria, who were sitting side by side now, happily high fived each other, while Isabel and Tess made sour faces. Max glanced out the window and noticed three people standing outside. Kyle was pressing his face at the glass plate and his nostrils were visible. Alex was making rabbit ears behind his friend and Liz was waving her hands like a lunatic through the air. Max tried to hide his laughter behind a cough, but the others had already discovered their audience and were smiling at the antics of their friends. Through the increasing noise level Nolak turned to the window and eyed the humans with a bored expression. Then he sighed before he gave them a sign that they should come inside.

" What are you doing?", Maria was slightly surprised about this reaction. She had expected that he would explode or send them away or do something more drastic. Maybe he was getting soft in his old days?

Nolak faced her stunned. " What does it look like? I´m inviting your friends to join us".

Michael seemed to be as equally baffled about their protector as Maria. What the hell was going on inside his head? " Why?".

" Because they can be helpful, too. Even if they don´t posessed the power like you, I learned that humans have the same will to survive like our people", Nolak had watched enough videos about human warriors, wars and something called boot camps. It was still a mystery to him how someone without the extra strength of powers, could confront an army without even a little bit fear showing on his face.

Maria jumped to her feets after the sentence was finished. No, she was against this idea. They were defenceless towards aliens and she didn´t want something to happen to them. Not as long as she was still alive and breathing at least. " Great. You mean they´re bait".

Nolak wondered for the umpteenth time why Larek couldn´t have taken the training and he would have just watched over it. No, his companion was probably too busy with sitting his ass flat to get himself down here to help him. " I didn´t say that. And I would appreciate if you wouldn´t read everything wrong. I´m trully under the impression they can help us".

Before Maria could open her mouth to retort something to that, Michael quickly distracted her with a kiss. In the exact moment the others finally came through the door and stopped directly at the entrance.

" What´s up?", Kyle was clueless to why they were here. Usually the aliens made everything so damn among them, that nobody outside their species was allowed to join. And now they were standing in the middle of the gym.

Nolak turned to the humans and eyed them. He was sizing them up. Marias brother seemed to be athletic and used to train with weight. Also his height should made him pretty fast on his feets. Contrary to the other boy. He was looking like he would break under too much weight or even just a blast of air. But he could change that. The girl was not exactly to place. She appeared like she couldn´t hurt a fly, but looks could be deceiving. He learned that when he met Marianna. However he could shape them into something more, if they let him. " Do you want to join the alien squad training?".

TBC


	46. Chapter 46

**Thanx to RedJewel2662 for the nice feedback.**

**Chapter 46 Meeting the family**

The next few weeks the friends were very much busy with training every day for three hours. All they did was going into their seminars, learning in their rooms or in the library, meeting in the gym for exercise and if time was still available just relax in front of the tv or slouch on the bed. But most of the time they just fell into their beds and slept as soon as their heads hit the pillow, because they were so exhausted. Nolak had stipped off his velvet gloves and was giving them all a hard time. He was stern, adamant and damn rough. Now they knew how the people on boot camps must feel or the soldiers in the army. He wasn´t making a difference between humans and aliens, he was treating everyone the same, although he wasn´t so nasty towards Liz actually. Yes, Alex, Kyle and her had joined the alien squad like Nolak had put it. They hadn´t even thought about it for a second before they jumped at the chance to help out. Maria had been against it and she still was. But nobody had listened to her and so she was keeping her mouth shut and trained extra hard to protect her friends. Sometimes she watched her brother pummel the punching bag in the form of an alien which Nolak had gotten from Larek and she was impressed. He was moving his body exactly like a boxer and his blows were direct and if the sand bag would be a real living person pretty hurtful if not deadly. The daily exercise didn´t harm him in any way and it wasn´t too bad that he had practise, because he had been in the wrestling team of his school for a few years and after that he was football captain. He knew how he could take his short size and make it into a advantage for him. Alex on the other hand was reminding Maria of Larek. He was rather clumsy in his attempt to defend himself. More than once they had to heal an ugly bruise on his face or at his arms. He was pretty smart and he was the best in technology. His weapon was the computer and he could do real damage with it. It just didn´t entail bodily harm. Fighting wasn´t one of his more distinct traits. But he didn´t want to give up and endured the torture. It had probably more to do that he could be closer to Isabel, who by the way had made an improvement with her powers. At first she had been reserved and was just watching the others. She was worried that she couldn´t compare with her lousy powers. All she ever was good at was dreamwalking and that wasn´t really helpful in a battle. But after Nolak took her aside and told her that this wasn´t a competition, that she was capable of so much more than she even knew, she finally brought herself more in. Strangly she was pretty powerful when she concentrated enough. She even surprised the others with it when she almost blew a hole in the wall near the entrance. Thankfully nobody had heard it or noticed anything unusual going on. Liz had been glad that she was so well protected with such a powerful roommate, because she wasn´t so strong. She had been always the quiet one in gang and shied every confrontation. She tried to stay more in the background and blend in so that nobody noticed her. She thought it was better for her. You can´t get harassed if nobody knows you´re there. That was her philosophy. She left the fighting to her best friend Maria, who seemed to be born warrior. In a way it was like that. She was the daughter of a commander in her past life and now the daughter of a sheriff. Self defence and battling was so much part of her nature that it was a wonder that she didn´t want to step into the shoes of her father and make career in the police sector. Nolak was shocked how much Marianna was in her. And it got more visible when she fought with Michael. He was moving with her like they never had done anything else in their lifes. Like they were two sides of the same coin. Ying and Yang. Two connected parts of a puzzle. They both were meant to be together that was for sure. She was balancing him and he did the same to her. He was, without knowing it, the only one comparing to Marias power. Together they could wipe out earth and not even break out in a sweat or get weak. They were still pretty clueless what strength they possessed or how they could work them. But that was the reason for Nolak to be here. His assigment was to prepare them for their upcoming challenge and to make sure that they were save. It wasn´t a pleasure for him to be so rough with them or to push them so hard. But he knew what layed ahead of them and he wanted to be sure that they wouldn´t fail this time. The surviving of an entire race was laying on the shoulders of these young teenagers and he had promised himself to do everything in his powers to shape them into powerful adults. Even if they sometimes acted like little brats and made him crazy with it. He had been anything but happy when he heard that his charges would go back home over thanksgiving and interrupt their training. However after he got persuaded from three whining femals he caved in and allowed a little break from all the exercise.

**Girls Building**

Tess was sitting on her little suitcase in front of the door. She was so excited to finally join a real thanksgiving celebration. Her grandfather was always working and they never had a real holiday party like others families. The only thing was a little get together from all of her grandfathers business partners and their families at new years eve. It was a formal dinner with all the nick nack like dressing in expensive gowns or suits and pretend to listened to the boring topics. Tess hated this things and often disappeared as soon as she could. Most of the time Michael went with her, because he liked this as much as her. They spent thanksgiving usual with the servants or were watching tv. But not this this year. This year they had been invited to the traditional Valenti dinner.

" Hey Maria. What is taking you so long? The guys are already waiting outside".

Maria finally appeared with a backpack on her shoulders and a bag full of laundry in her right hand. " Hold your horses. I´m here".

Tess eyed the bag with an amused expression. It was much bigger than the backpack. " Are you planning to move back home?".

" No. I´ll take up the opportunity to wash my dirty clothes at home and save money", Maria didn´t see anything strange at this. Many students took their laundry back home and she was no exception. Besides like she knew her brother he was doing the same.

Tess smiled knowlingly. " You mean saving doing it yourself?".

Maria just grinned as answer. What was so bad when she wanted to give her mother the feeling she was still needed in her life? She was just doing a favour. And her mother used this really great fabric softener, which smelled like flowers. " You know me. But let´s go now before Kyle gets cranky".

" Don´t worry, I packed a little food for the drive", Tess stood up from her suitcase and lifted a small basket, which had been hidden until now.

Maria shook her head laughing. Her roommate already figured her brother out. If he´s busy with eating he´s pretty bearable. And they had a long drive in front of them after all. Her friend needed all the help she could get. Without saying anything she walked away with Tess trailing after her.

**Parking lot**

Michael and Kyle were standing at the black Dodge Dakote Pickup and waited for their girlfriends. They had already packed their bags into the trunk and were now talking about the upcoming thanksgiving dinner. Kyle was used to his slightly crazy family, but an outsider could get intimidated easily. It wasn´t just his parents or his little sister his roommate had to face, it was almost the whole family. That meant the grandparents from both sides, uncles, aunts, cousins and their partners. Usually it was really crowded in their home when a holiday was coming. Except for christmas, that was the only celebration they spent alone.

" So. You should keep away from my aunt Muriel, she´s smooching everyone and leaves a really big imprint of her lipstick on your cheek. My uncle Robert will try to palm you one of his insurance, don´t let yourself get talked into something. Aunt Victoria will probably be drunk at the end of the evening and will try to lure you into her bed. She likes her men young. My little cousins are a pain in the ass, but they´re playing outside most of the time, hence they´re not a real problem. My parents are really cool, but my father will bombard you with question, after all you´re dating his little daughter".

Michael listened intently to Kyle and tried to memorize everything. He was wondering how many people he would be meeting. He couldn´t remember having so much family and seeing them all together. All he ever had was his sister and his grandfather, his aunt Meredith, her husband Bobby and their daugter Laurie. But other than that they were pretty much alone. Strange that he was looking forward to join a real family dinner. " All right. I think you should write that down for me, because I gotta tell you, before we arrive at your home I have already forgotten everything again".

Kyle smirked at his friend. Yeah it was a tad bit much information and he knew it. " Don´t worry. Maria and I will be with you and help".

" Thank god. Are you sure your parents don´t mind us tagging along?", after all it sounded like the house would be very full and he wasn´t so sure if there was still a place for them.

" No. They insisted that you come actually. They want to meet you and Tess", yeah, especially his father. He wanted to get to know the man who stole the heart of his daughter and see if he was worthy of her. His mother was more interested to meet Tess and see if she was as pretty as her son always told.

Before Michael could reply something, he saw the girls walking in their direction. Amused he noticed the big bag of probably dirty clothes in Marias hand. Kyle and her were more alike than he thought at first. His roommate had spent the whole morning looking for his clothes that needed to get washed. Now there was a huge black bag in his trunk, full of things he didn´t want to know. In a few minutes it would get company. Quietly sniggering he shook his head at his girlfriend, who was in a deep conversation with his sister. He loved watching her like that. Her face was animated and her hands were flying through the air. She was always talking with her complete body and he wondered if even deaf-mutes could understand her.

" Hy Honey", Kyle embraced Tess briefly before he kissed her a little more heated, forgetting the audience of their siblings for a moment.

Disgusted Michael looked away and focused his attention on his own girlfriend, who seemed to be as happy about the public exposure as he was. " They are so sick. Can´t they wait until they´re alone?", then he wrapped his arms around Marias middle and pulled her at his body with a small smile. " Hey gorgeous".

Maria liked his nickname for her. It gave her such a warm feeling inside when he called her that. The last few weeks had been a tad bit hard on their blossoming relationship, because they didn´t have any time alone. But now they had no obligations, except for eating food, talk to people and try to sneak away without anyone noticing it. It would be hard to find time for them, but it wasn´t impossible. " Hey commander. Are you ready to meet my family?".

" Yes, although your brother scared me off a bit. He told me which person I should be careful of", Michael enjoyed it to be finally able to hold Maria in his arms and not be tired or wasted again. It had been too long that they had really time to talk or do other things couples would do in this stage of their relationship.

Maria could´t hold it back any longer. His face was so adorable when he was confused that she had to kiss him. It wasn´t intense or pretty long, more of a light smoochie, but for more they had to wait until they were among themself. " So Kyle warned you from Aunt Muriel, Uncle Robert, Aunt Victoria and Aunt Lorelai".

Michael nodded his head at the first three names. But at the last name he stopped and looked at her questionly. " Aunt Lorelai? No Kyle forget mentioning her. What should I be aware of with her?".

" She´s a cheek-pincher. And believe me it´s not just for a few seconds, she holds it for minutes. If you´re lucky your skin becomes numb at some point and you don´t feel any pain. But it´s best if you try to avoid her all together. It´s healthier"

Michael made a mental note to keep close to his girlfriend at all times. It was easier than remembering the names. " I hope I still know everything when we arrive at your house".

Maria broke away from his embrace and tenderly patted his belly. " You will do fine. I have faith in you", then she turned to her brother and her roommate. " Yo, break it up you two. We want to go".

Startled Kyle and Tess released each other instantly. Both with swollen lips and glowing cheeks. A little embarrassed they faced their siblings and tried to act normal. At least as normal as they could, considering they forgot that they weren´t alone and couldn´t control themself.

" Finally. Now that you finished your suck fest, we can actually go", Michael took Marias things and put them in his trunk, while Maria did the same with Tess things.

Kyle´s blood hadn´t found his way back to his head yet, hence he just showed them his finger to tell them what he thought of them. After he heard laughing, he knew that they received his message. Then he took Tess by the hand, opened the door for her and got her inside before he got in himself. Michael and Maria watched them through the open trunk and noticed that Kyle was sulking for a moment. At least until Tess continued what they had started earlier. At this point the trunk closed with a loud thud.

" They´re worse than us and that means something coming from me", Michael was glad that he was driving and had to concentrate on the road. The last thing he needed was seeing his sister making out with her boyfriend behind him in his car, because then he either had to beat his friend up or stop at a restroom to get rid of his food.

Maria kissed him quick to take his mind off things. Well that and they wouldn´t have the chance to exchange caresses the next few hours. " Just think about tonight. We both alone under the stars. Maybe naked and doing things to each other that those two could just dream about".

Michael´s eyes started to twinkle full of anticipation. He couldn´t wait until then. Slowly he snaked his hands around Maria and tried to trap her in his embrace. But she knew what he wanted to do and jumped away from him and his evil arms. " You´re mean".

" Yeah. But remember. The good girls come into heaven. Bad girls everywhere", smiling she winked at him, before she disappeared in the car.

Michael rubbed his face with his hands. Damn that girl would be the death of him. Now he had all those fantasies in his mind and they weren´t nice or even innocent. Damn her and damn his hormones. With a quiet cursing he walked to the driver´s side and got in.

**4 hours later**

The black Dodge just passed the " Welcome in Roswell" sign, when the conversation in the car died down. The whole drive Kyle and Maria told stories about their childhood and things that happened in their town. The strange people that came every year for the alien convention in the UFO-Center and the Crashfestival afterwards. There was even a voting for an election of Miss Crash, which Maria won two years in a row. Kyle had much fun telling this part, because there were even pictures from this moment in their home, in the Crashdown, their former school and in the UFO-Center. Suddenly blue and red lights were flashing behind the car and a horn was heard. Shocked Michael eyed the speedometer to see if he had been to fast. But he was driving the legal minimum speed.

" You better stop", Kyle looked over his right shoulder at the light brown jeep, a car he knew rather well. He even sat in it a few times. Especially when he tried to have fun at some party or when Maria went missing once again.

Michael was slightly nervous when he parked his car at the sidewalk and lowered the pane. The feeling intensified when he saw a man getting out. He wasn´t extremely tall or even athletic built. But it was the whole presence that appeared like he was meaner than he looked. Despite that his eyes where hidden behind mirrored sunglasses and a cowboy hat was throwing shadows on his face, he knew that it wouldn´t be smart to against this man. His footsteps where loud and calculated.

When the man was besides the window and bent down to look into the car, everybody noticed the golden star at his beige shirt. " Good evening.Registration and driver license, please".

Immediately Michael searched for his wallet where he kept this things. Sweat was forming on his forehead and his hands shook like crazy. Until he heard the quiet laughing coming from his girlfriend.

" Hey Dad".

Jim Valenti startled for a moment. Then he noticed his daughter sitting besides this young man. Surprised he took his sunglasses off and put them on his shirt. " Maria? What are you doing in this car? And where is your brother?".

Before Maria could answer the question Kyle stretched his head through the car seats. " I´m here Dad".

" What happened to your car?", Jim hoped it was still in one piece. He knew his son and he already put a few dents in his mothers little red Jetta, although he had a light suspicion that Maria had something to do with it, too.

Kyle smiled at his father. He expected this question already. Like the dents in the Jetta were his faults. Maria had caused most of them, but he as the perfect brother had put his neck on the line to protect his sister from punishment. Besides they couldn´t tell their parents the truth how the dents came into the car. It wasn´t like they could explain it with " Sorry, but Maria had to practise her strange powers and the Jetta was in the way". That was out of the question, so Kyle told that he was racing against a few of his friends and that was the reason for the damage. " Don´t worry, my baby is still intact and standing outside campus".

Now Maria butted in, because she knew the next question that would be coming every second. Why they didn´t take Kyle´s car if it wasn´t damaged? " And before you ask, we couldn´t take the camaro, because our bags wouldn´t fit in the small car", she had to make a little pause until she was sure that her brother was finished with his rant about the insult to his beloved baby. " That´s the reason why we took Michaels much bigger car".

" So, you are the young man who´s dating my little angel", Jim eyed Michael with his sheriff glance. He only wore it when he had to interrogate a criminal and it usually worked. He didn´t trust this boy yet. Well, he didn´t trust any male who was interested in his daughter and he didn´t like them.

Michael wet his dry lips and wiped his sweating hands on his jeans. Nervously gulping he stretched his hand out. " Yeah. Michael Dupree. Nice to meet you, Sir".

Jim grasped his hand and squeezed it firmly while he gave him a warning with his eyes. If Michael knew what was good for him, he shouldn´t hurt his daughter. He owned a few guns and he wouldn´t hesitate to use them. " Same here".

" And that´s Tess, my girlfriend", Kyle noticed the tension between his roommate and his father. He was glad not to be in Michael´s shoes right now. His father was normally pretty cool and he was more like a carebear. But throw Maria in the mix and he mutated to a snarling pitbull, who tried to protect his pups.

Immediately Jims complete aura changed and he smiled at the girl in the back. She was really pretty and had similarities with Maria. He liked her already. Pleasantly he put his hand out to her. " It´s a pleasure to meet you".

Tess hesistantly took the offered hand and shook it. For a moment she had been scared, because he had been a little rude to her brother. But now he was friendly, at least to her. " It´s a pleasure for me, too".

" Where is Mom? Is she still in her shop?", Maria was a little upset that her father had been so unkindly to her boyfriend, whereas he was all smiling with Tess. It was so unfair that he always tried to scare the boys in her life away.

Jim turned his attention to his daugther again. " Yes, she´s doing inventory before she closes the shop over Thanksgiving. But she should be home soon". He looked at his watch and noticed that it was getting late. " If you´re already on the road, could you get Lindsey from the crashdown? Her shift ends in ten minutes".

Maria had to bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. Her little sister was following in her footsteps and started working as a waitress. Who would have thought? " Yeah, no problem. We have to drive through the street anyway".

" All right. Then be careful and we´ll see each other tonight", Jim knocked threetimes lightly on the roof of the car, before he made his way to his jeep again.

Michael waited until the sheriff drove past them. After that he started the car and guided it back on the street again. He was a tad bit miffed about the fact that Marias father was obviously against him. It wasn´t to overlook and he received the hidden message in the mans eyes. " Your father hates me".

Maria faced him rather perplex. She hadn´t ever heard him using this tone in his voice. Like a little boy that was just told that he would be sent to the scary aunt for the holidays. Reassuringly she laid a hand on his thigh and squeezed it. She didn´t want him to feel unwelcomed in her home. " No. He doesn´t hate you. He just needs time to get to know you, that´s all".

" She´s right. I wouldn´t take this meeting too personally. He treats every boy that way. At least those dating Maria or even showing an interest in her", Kyle was used to his fathers behaviour by now. Now Michael finally saw where he got the overprotectiveness. It was in his genes.

Despite the encouraging words from his friend Michael was still not feeling any better. Every father in Tucson was always trying to force their daughters on him. He was the best catch for the girls from his status. But now he was treated like a homeless man who tried to steal the daughter of a rich man. He didn´t understand it. However he was determind to prove Marias father that he was worthy of her and wouldn´t do something to hurt her. " Great".

The rest of the drive was pretty quiet, except for a few directions from Maria here and there. Tess was observing the buildings at the sidewalk, because she had been never to Roswell before. She liked the little stores with the alien decoration. Although she should be offended, they didn´t look like green creatures with big black eyes, she was amused about it. Every town had their history, it was just fate that there were rumours about a UFO crash in 1947 here. If something different would have happened, Roswell would be like every other town in this state. Kyle saw the excitement in the eyes of his girlfriend and slid closer to her. Slowly he put his arm around her and whispered stories about a few shops in her ear. He knew almost every citizen and could tell some interesting things. Minutes later the car stopped in front of a restaurant with a UFO sticking out of the building. It looked like the flying object had crash into it. That would at least explain the name, because it was called the " Crashdown ". Without saying anything the four got out of the car and walked to the entrance. Immediately when they opened the door, the sound of " close encounter of the third kind " was heard and the smell of fries and hamburgers were wafting through the air. For a moment Maria stopped in her tracks and soaked up the scent. It brought back a lot of funny memories and she knew what she had missed all this time at the university.

Michael looked around and regarded the decoration of this joint. It was neat as much as he could see. Not the three stars noble restaurant he visited with his family, but it was not bad either. He noticed aliens painted on the walls and the alien theme which was following through the whole establishment. Then he saw the waitresses and their short uniforms. " Now that´s what I call service".

Maria turned to her boyfriend and realized that he was oggling the waitresses in their uniforms, which was showing lots of legs. " You´re such a pig".

" What? I just like the outfit, not the person in it", carefully he stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. " Maybe you can talk your sister in borrowing her uniform so that I can see you in it and tell you how it looks on you".

At that Kyle tapped his shoulders. He pointed at a photo that was hanging at the wall at the right of them. It was in the middle of other pictures from different holidays as it appeared. " You don´t need that. Maria worked here through highschool. Look".

Michael bent towards the picture and observed it thoroughly. He almost swallowed his tongue. There was Maria standing with her arms around Liz, she also was in the teal short uniform with an alien headband on their heads. They both were smiling at the camera and although his girlfriends hair were shorter, just above her shoulders, she looked absolute gorgeous. " Oh Shit. I hope you still have your uniform. You look hot".

Maria rolled her eyes at him. He was a real guy, always thinking with his dick. Just as she wanted to say something, a person caught her eye. A man in his forties, with short black hair, blue friendly eyes and a ever smiling face. " Mr. P!".

" Maria! ", the man made his way through the tables and walked in her direction with outstretched arms. She meet him halfway and embraced him wholeheartly. For a minute they both held each other. After that the man stepped back from her. " What are you doing here? You want your job back?".

Maria laughed while she made a horrified expression. " No. Although I miss the greasy food and the pick up lines from Jose. I´m just here to get Lindsey".

Just as the sentence was finished, a little girl with brown hair, which were bound into two braided pigails and blue eyes was stepping through the swinging door, which lead into the back. She was dressed in a pair of white jeans, a black t-shirt with the picture of some boygroup on it and white sneakers.

" Hey squirt. You need a ride home?", Kyle called almost through the whole restaurant. A few people at the tables stopped what they were doing and watched him. But he didn´t care about them, instead he looked at the girl

She on the other hand was glaring at him, before a smile broke out on her face and she ran in their direction. " Oh my god!", she squealed happily and jumped into the awaiting arms of Kyle. Then she turned to Maria and threw her arms around the other girl. " When did you arrive?".

Kyle was still a little shocked about the joyful welcoming from his little sister. She was usually doing like it was a burden to be related to him or Maria. But now she was glad to see them. Go figure. What a few weeks apart could do. " Actually just now. We got pulled over from Dad and he told us to get you".

" When did you decide to work here? Didn´t you tell me that you would rather die than wearing this ugly uniform?", Maria raised a eyebrow at her sister. She often had been the reason for a laughing fit, because of her work appearance. It wasn´t as much the dress, as it was the antennas on her head.

Lindsey blushed slightly and dropped her face. She remembered all the teasing and the jokes she made about her sister. Now she regretted all the time she did that. " That was before I got told that if I wanted a car I had to earn the money for it".

Kyle and Maria exchanged amused glances. Their parents did the same to them at this age. They even received a long " nothing in this world is for free" speech. Something about working hard to get what you want or something. It had been pretty boring and they both had been miles away with their minds. They didn´t hear the whole speech, but the main part was still there.

Finally Lindsey noticed the added persons standing behind her siblings. She brightend instantly when she saw the most gorgeous boy standing there. His dark hair was spikey and sticking in all directions, his hazel eyes were sparkling like two gems and his body seemed to be built like a greek statue. Shyly she leant closer to Maria. " Hey who´s the guy".

Maria had almost forgotten that they hadn´t come alone. Slowly she pointed at the girl first " That´s Tess, Kyle´s girlfriend" ,then she pointed at the guy. " And that is Michael, my boyfriend". She smiled at him. " Guys, this is Lindsey, my little sister".

A few greetings were exchanged. Immediately Kyle picked up the pining from his little sister in the direction of his roommate. What was up with the females of his family that they were almost drooling after Michael? He wasn´t that good looking.

Tess noticed that something was wrong with Kyle and looked at him. She realized right away that he was upset, because Lindsey had obviously fallen in love with Michael. It was one thing for him to loose his twin sister to his roommate, but it was another if his underaged sister was doing the same, although he knew that Lindsey wouldn´t have a chance with Michael. " Come on Kyle. I think we should go. It´s getting dark".

" Yeah. I´m already starving", Maria rubbed her belly. Contrary to her brother she hadn´t eaten anything since the departure four hours ago. And now her stomach was reporting a warning, because he was empty. Besides she had pity with Kyle. He was looking so heart broken. His baby sister finally grew up and noticed the other gender. Poor boy, first he saw the prove that she was sexually active and now Lindsey was making eyes at his friend.

Kyle faced Tess and then Maria. They both were pleading with him to get his ass in gear. Shrugging his shoulders he gave in and made his way out of the restaurant all the while keeping a tight grip on Lindseys wrist and dragging her with him, much to her protest, which he didn´t listen to. Tess shook her head at her boyfriend and followed them. Maria stayed back for a few seconds to say goodbye to Mr. Parker and Jose. After that she left with Michael, who had been waiting for her. He was pretty clueless what happened in the crashdown. He hadn´t even noticed anything unusual. Only when Maria pointed out that her sister had developed a little crush on him did he finally understand the tension. Cockily he got in the car and brushed his hand through his hair. Yeah baby, he was the man.

**In front of the Valenti Residence**

Michael parked the car at the sidewalk, because the driveway was already occupied with two automobiles. One maroon coloured Jetta, who had seen better days and an ugly green painted Beetle. Confused Maria and Kyle stepped out of the black dodge and faced each other. The first car was their mothers, but the other they hadn´t seen in ages. Not since the owner was send into juvie four years ago. Tess and Michael also got out of the car and eyed the house while their beloved ones were still busy with staring at the ugly vehicle. It was a simple two story building, held in the usual colour of brown and beige, except for the roof of course, which was maroon. A big porch with a small white bench was circling around the house. Two big windows where at the front on the first floor, while the windows in the second floor were a little smaller. A little path made of stones was surrounded on both sides with neat trimmed lawn and here and there were multicolored flowers growing. Tess fell immediately in love with the house and the " cutest curtains". It was nothing compared to their palace at home, but it was emitting this cosy vibes, which was missing in the mansion since their parents died.

" I love it here. What about you?", Tess was grinning from ear to ear while she got her suitcase out of the trunk. She was already starting to like her new surroundings.

Michael fetched his own backpack and looked around to the other houses in the street. He could like to live here. Not that he intended to do it anytime soon, but if he had to, he could live with that. " It´s nice".

Finally Maria turn up to get her backpack and bag with her laundry. But she was obviously in a conversation with her brother. " Do you think he escaped?".

" Don´t be ridiculous! Dad wouldn´t let him under his roof if he would be on the run", Kyle snorted loudly while he grasped his things out of the trunk. He didn´t even register the people standing close to him. He was too busy with thinking about the implication of the situation.

Now Lindsey stepped closer to her siblings and shook her head at them. " He´s living with us now. He was released because of his good behaviour four weeks ago. Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Paulie have kicked him out of the house and mom had pity with him".

Maria groaned annoyed. No, her mother couldn´t do that to her. She couldn´t just take him in without giving her a heads up about it. " Shoot me, please".

" Oh come on. It will be fun", Kyle laid the arm with his bag over his sister shoulders. He didn´t understand why she was so damn irritated. It wasn´t like his parents gave shelter to a stranger. At least he was family. Besides he liked having another male around.

Maria glared at him. Yeah he could talk, at least he liked their new guest. She on the other hand had always been the center of his jokes and more than once she had been tempted to blast him to another country or preferable another planet. " Great. Can´t wait".

Kyle just laughed at her. She couldn´t forget their childhood and the things she had to endure through the attacks of two boys. Slowly he steered his sister in the direction of the house. Tess and Michael followed the siblings rather baffled. They were still trying to understand what just happened and who the new arrival was and why Maria was against the idea. Lindsey was trailing behind them and admired hotties nice butt in the tight black jeans. She watched the way it moved with the steps. Holy cow, why couldn´t the boys in her class look like that? Suddenly she bumped into Michaels backside, because she had been miles away with her thoughts. Embarrassed she realized that they already were at the door and she hadn´t even noticed it.

" Everything okay with you?", Michael bent down to look at her. His hands were grasping her shoulders to keep your upright. She didn´t appear like she was pretty stable on her feets right now.

Lindsey blushed so much that she had similarities with a tomatoe. Oh god, why didn´t the earth open up and swallow you when you want it? " Yeah. I was just distracted".

Michael gave her his charming one hundred watt smile, while Maria knocked at the door total obvious to the little accident moments ago. She was mentally counting to ten and was quite busy with it. In a few seconds she would be confronting her childhood nemesis. Just as the thought was finished, the door swung open and a young man with short blonde hair, a slight beard and piercing blue eyes was standing in front of her. He was wearing blue sweat pants and a plain white t-shirt. The smile on his face was contagious.

" Hey, what took you so long? We already expected you an hour ago".

Maria rolled her eyes and breathed deeply in before she plastered a smirk on her face. " Hello to you, too. I´m glad that a few things never change".

The guy grinned at her. Now that was the young girl he remembered. Although she had gotten more beautiful since he last saw her, on the inside she was still the same. " Oh, don´t be like that M. I really missed ya".

" I wish I could say the same, but sadly I can´t", Maria pushed past him without giving him a chance to step out of the way. She almost flung him on the ground with her shove.

Kyle sighed loud before he paid attention to the guy at the door. " Hey Sean. I´m glad you´re here".

Sean, who had been staring after Maria, turned around and smiled at him. Then they both did their usual greeting ritual, what entailed much movement with their hands and a strange bump with their backsides. " What´s up with your sister?".

" She still hasn´t forgiven you for setting her hair on fire. Because of you she had to wear hats for months", Kyle giggled at the memory. It had something to do with an experiment. They just wanted to check if they could create a big flame if they sprayed hairspray on a lit lighter. It wasn´t their fault that Maria decided to get in the way just in the moment when a really huge flame jumped out of the cane. Thankfully she had been so quick to protect her face. Unfortunately her hair didn´t have so much luck and it burned almost to her nape. After that the barber had to cut it pretty short.

Sean couldn´t keep his own grin off of his face. Man, those had been the days. " It was an accident. How long does she want be pissed about that?", suddenly he registered the two people standing behind Kyle. " Hey. I´m Sean, Kyle and Marias Cousin".

Michael nodded at the other man. " I´m Michael", he pointed with his thumb besides him. " And that´s my sister Tess".

" Oh yeah, the roommates", Sean opened the door wider and stepped aside. " Come on in. Aunt Amy is excited to get to know you".

Kyle went immediately inside and dropped his bags near the entrance. Then he sniffed the air, which was suspiciously smelling after his favourite meal, chicken with grilled corncob, mashed potatoes and probably some salad. Happily he rubbed his belly and licked his lips. How he missed homemade food.

Tess and Michael were uncomfortable standing in the den of the house. They eyed the walls, which had been painted in a nice terracotta color. Some pictures from the family, everybody or seperated were hanging on it. A small chest of drawers was standing near the door with a small vase of yellow flowers on top. The corridor was leading into like it appeared the kitchen. Before that were two closed doors. Besides the den was a staircase, which reached into the second floor. Suddenly they were thrown from their staring when Kyle moved towards the end of the corridor. Instantly they both trailed after him. When they stepped into the kitchen, the first thing they noticed was the size of it. It was pretty huge and open. In the middle of the room was a wooden countertop with pans and other things hanging from the ceiling. The wooden kitchen range was almost taking half of the space. At the southwall was a glass door, which lead into the garden outside. In front of that door was a white table with six matching chairs.

" Keep your hands away", rang out a commanding female voice. Michael and Tess turned to the owner and saw a young woman, probably in her midthirties. She had short brown hair and was petite built. Her clothes were trendy, but not too youthfully. She was just wearing blue jeans and a white tight t-shirt and yet it looked really good on her.

Maria nursed her hand, which had been slapped from a wooden spoon. She just wanted to snatch some cucumber from the salad. But no, her mother had to destroy her hand to protect the food. " Oh come on Mom. I´m starving. Nobody will noticed if a slice cucumber is missing".

Amy shook her head at her daughter and threatend her again with the spoon. " I will notice it. And now be a good girl and set the table".

With a quiet huff Maria went to a cupboard and got plates from it. Kyle meanwhile had observed the battle between his sister and his mother. Everytime it was the same. Maria tried to steal something and their mother busted her. When would she finally learn that she couldn´t win? " Hey Mom".

" Oh my", Amy spun around and ran towards her son. She embraced him tightly and kissed every part of his face, to the general dislike of the said person. " Finally my babies are home again".

Kyle tried to escape the glutches from his mother. She was embarrassing him in front of his friend and girlfriend. " Mom. Stop that. We have visitors".

That stopped Amy immediately. She let go of her son and stared at the two person behind him. The young man was really handsome and the kind of partner she always wanted for her daughter. " Nice to meet you. I´m Amy Valenti".

Michael took the offered hand and slightly squeezed it. He instantly noticed that Maria was coming after her father, because her mother looked the opposite from her. Her eyes were green, whereas her mothers were a nice brown. " Michael Dupree. And it´s a pleasure to meet you".

" And you must be Tess. Kyle told me so much about you", Amy already had a liking to the shy girl in the background. She was looking a little like her daughter. She would be really good for her son and keep him out of trouble.

Tess´ face graced a slight blush, which she tried to cover with a nervous giggle. " Don´t believe everything. I´m actually pretty nice".

Amy laughed about the little joke. Yeah, she had a feeling that she would be seeing those two a lot in the near future and for the first time she didn´t have a bad feeling about it. " Good to know", then she noticed the bags in their hands. " Kyle, show our guest their quarters, so that we can eat in a little bit".

" Sure thing", Kyle took Tess by the hand and led her away from the kitchen, while Michael followed after them.

Maria walked to her mother and looked over her shoulder. " Why do you make such a fuss? You don´t cook so much during the week. What gives?".

Amy turned around and glanced at her daughter like another head was growing from her throat. " We have guests. I want them to feel at home. Nothing more".

" Uhuh. I don´t buy it. Try it again and this time tell me the truth".

Amy gave in. She knew she was the worst liar on earth and especially towards her own daughter, who smelt a lie miles away. " All right. The whole family will be eating together at the table".

Maria´s eyes widened at that. " Everybody everybody? Even Dad?".

Amy just nodded. Her husband had been even the one who suggested this dinner. He wanted to see if the young man his daughter would bring home was good enough for her. He already ran a background check on him. But he couldn´t find anything, the boy had a clean slate.

" Holy Shit!", Maria knew the implication of this get together. It was just to scare her boyfriend or drive him out of this house. Damn this dinner would be hell or something close to it.

TBC


	47. Chapter 47

**Thankx to Jadefire305 and RedJewel2662 for sticking to this story and having fun reading it.**

**Chapter 47 Family dinner and the last preperation for the party**

Kyle dragged his girlfriend back through the corridor and took his things, which he had dropped so careless before. Then he led her up the stairs, not even sure if his roommate was still following them. But he had other things occuping his mind right now. Why did his mother cook such a wonderful dinner and why of all things did she choose his fathers favourite meal? All right, she could want to make such a fuss for their guests and she was making her sons favourite dish, which was by accident her husbands. However his gut told him something different. Hopefully his father didn´t plan to grill Michael too bad, whereas his concern lay more with his father than his friend, after all his father got no otherworldly powers up his sleeve.

" Kyle? Kyle?".

Kyle jumped slightly when he heard Tess voice near his ear. He turned to his girlfriend and stared at her questionally. " What?".

Tess pointed around them and wanted to make him aware of their surroundings. He brought her and her brother up the stairs, but suddenly he had stopped when they were standing in the corridor of the second floor. Although it was nice here and the small photos along the walls were really entertaining, she wanted to get rid of her suitcase. " You were spacing out on us. Are you alrigh?".

" Yeah. I was just deep in thoughts", Kyle hadn´t even realized that they were already at the second floor. Amused he scratched his head with his right hand. Usually it was Maria that was spacing out on him or in front of their parents. But it never happened to him actually.

Michael was busy with looking at the photos hanging at the wall, while his sister was checking her boyfriend for any illness. He found one picture that drew his attention. It was from Kyle and Maria, both dressed for Halloween. He was Peter Pan, at least according to the green thights, the green t-shirt and the green hat with the red feather. His sister seemed to be Tinkerbell or some fairy. She was wearing a light green dress with white wings and a wand in her hand. The smiles appeared innocent, but the twinkle in their eyes was anything but that. Well, Kyle and Maria couldn´t be more than six or seven years old on this picture and every child had something impishly at this age.

Kyle and Tess had finally reached a common ground and were now watching Michael staring at the picture with such an intensity that it was already scary. Quietly Kyle walked besides his roommate. " It won´t change, even if you start boring a hole into it with your glance".

Michael didn´t even notice that he got company and jumped slightly for a moment. He had been so engrossed with the picture of the young Maria. She was familiar to him somehow. Not the older version, because she was his girlfriend and everything. But her younger self. He had seen her somewhere years ago. But he couldn´t remember where. " I know her".

" Of course. You´re dating her right now", Kyle exchanged confused glances with Tess. Did Michael hit his head somewhere and they hadn´t noticed it? Or was he possessed from a bodysnatcher?

Michael turned away from the pictures and glared at his friend. " I didn´t mean it like that. I´ve seen Maria before", he pointed at the photo with his finger. " When she looked like that".

Tess finally understood what her brother wanted to tell them and why he had been staring at the picture. Curiously she eyed it herself and startled. Holy crap! She knew that little girl smiling back at her, too. Surprised she turned to Michael. " Do you remember the last time Mom and Dad went with us to Disneyland? We were 8 years old and you thought you were too old to drive with the lame ass things and you waited outside for us. Then you saw a crying girl wandering around and you walked to her immediately, because you were scared that somebody could hurt her while she was alone. You stayed with her until her parents came".

" Oh my god. I have almost forgotten that day", Michael could still remember the sad expression on Marias face. It had been heart wrenching to watch her crying so quietly. He had wanted to protect her from getting injured or taken from some creep. The moment she had been staring up at him, he had known that he would always be there to protect her from harm and no matter what happened he would see her again.

Kyle faced his girlfriend and then his roommate. " That was you that day?".

Michael turned to his friend. Strange that he couldn´t remember seeing Kyle, although he had to be there with his parents too, hadn´t he? They wouldn´t have just made a trip just with just one child, would they? " Obviously".

" What are you talking about and why are you staying here?", came the voice of Maria suddenly from their midst. She had joined them without them noticing it.

Tess cringed for a moment, because she was surprised about the presence of her roommate. Then she turned to the other girl. " We just discussed this picture", she pointed at the mentioned photo.

Maria looked at it and smiled. She had loved this dress more than anything. Too bad that she was too big for it now, because she was sure that she would still wear it today if she could. She even had slept in it, much to the displeasure of her mother. " Great. You can do that after we ate. Now shoo! I´m almost starving and my father is coming every second".

She didn´t give the others even a slight chance to open their mouthes, before she pushed them down the hall, which was painted in a nice apricot color. The carpet was a wonderful shade of brown, perfectly matching the surroundings. She shoved them past Lindseys chamber, which was painted in pink and white and Seans room, which was contrary to Lindseys space held in beige tints. Then she snatched Tess hand and dragged her friend into her empire, while Kyle and Michael continued two doors before they too stepped into a room.

**Dinner**

Tess was sitting opposite her brother at the nice table with a big plate of much food in front of her. She was still gushing over Marias beautiful room with the soft lilac painted walls and the aqua colored carpet. Across from the door was a big wood desk standing with pens, papers and such things. It must be nice to do the homework at this place, because even if it was dark outside, she could imagine the sun shining through the window and brighten everything. The king sized white canopy bed had his spot at the right wall, just besides a huge shelf full of books, videos, two tiaras, a few ribbons and other knick knack. The left wall was occupied with two doors, which the first one was the closet and second one lead into the bathroom Maria shared with her brother. Next to the entrance had been placed a small black table with a small tv and a videorecorder on it. The room was practically screaming Maria with all the small details like the stuffed animals on the pink playboy cover on the bed, the plants on the windowsill, the sweet scent of strawberry and vanille, the big metallica poster over her bed, a black panther picture besides it and the beige curtains suiting the overall structure of the space. Tess had sneaked a peek into Kyle´s room for a second and she had been surprised how neat it looked. Except for the little chaos on his shelf with the sports trophys, his books and a few pictures it was clean. His walls were held in a ochre brown, while his carpet was grey. His black futon bed was standing alongside his window and she had spotted his black desk at the left wall. Much to her displeasure she discovered a calender with scantily clad girls who´s boobs seemed to want to bust from their bikini tops and one poster with the playmate from May besides many posters from football- and baseball players. Typical guy room, what could she say.

" So Michael, what have you planned for your future? What do you want to do after college?", Jim Valenti´s voice threw Tess out of her thoughts and brought her attention again on the dinner at hand and the bashing of her brother through Marias father.

Michael, who was too nervous to get a bit down and slightly poked around his plate, swallowed visibly. Until now he had been so sure that it wouldn´t be so bad like he had feared. Thankfully it was just them, meaning Maria, Kyle, their cousin, their little sister and their parents. But now he was scared to say the wrong thing. " My grandfather owns a few huge car factories around the world and he wants me to take his place in the near future. That´s the reason why I major in business, so that I know what I´ll have to do then".

Jim eyed the young man with interest. He thought until now that Michael was a snobby boy, who thought the world belonged to him, because his family was rich. But he had to admit that he had been wrong about that. That didn´t mean he liked him any better, yet he was willing to let a little loose on him. " That means, as much as I understand, that you will take over the family business. You don´t have to work hard to get on top, you just will be the boss of this business without doing anything?".

" No. I have to learn like everyone else. My grandfather will show me everything I have to learn and if I impress him I will be promoted. Otherwise I will sink lower and start from the beginning", Michael had been surprised when his grandfather told him that he had to earn his position. He always thought that he would take the place from him when his grandpa was too old to do it any longer. But it had been a shock at first to know that he had to start at the bottom and work his way up.

Amy saw the change in her husband. He was slowly getting softer towards Michael, even if he wouldn´t show it so openly. But she knew him long enough to see the signs. He still didn´t trust this young man who was dating his little angel, but he wouldn´t chase him out of this house either. At least not yet. Smiling brightly she turned to Maria and give her two thumbs up.

Jim bent forward with his torso and looked closer at Michael. He just had one question and then he would leave the poor boy alone. For now. " Are you having sex with my daughter?".

" Jim!", Amy cried out outraged. How could her husband ask this? She turned to a pale looking Michael. " You don´t have to answer this question. It´s after all none of our business".

Sean sniggered behind his hands. Now this dinner went from boring to pretty interesting. " I hope they have sex, maybe then Maria won´t be so bitchy all the time".

Amy faced her nephew with a glare and without giving him a chance to react she slapped him on the back of his head. " Shut up Sean. You´re not helping here".

" I was just saying", Sean rubbed the spot where his aunt hit him. Damn women in this family tended to violence. His own mother had done the same with him when he had been up to something or made trouble. No wonder he had been sitting behind bars for a few years. All the slaps to his head had caused some damage.

Jim had learned much in his times as Deputy and even more since he was Sheriff. He was better than every lie detector. He could see from the expression of ones face if he was honest or not. And even though he hadn´t gotten a verbal answer the blushing faces of Michael and Maria told him everything he wanted to know, although he would be rather dark about that fact, even if he asked the question. But a small part of him wanted to get the affirmation that his daughter was still innocent. Well, maybe he should draw his attention on his younger daughter. " So Lindsey, what is going on in your life?".

Lindsey lowered her gaze and eyed the strange circle she had made into her mashed potatoes. How could she tell her father that she had been asked out by a boy after he blew up on Maria? Her mother already agreed to it, now she just needed the same from her father. But she was sure that she could forget it. " Nothing much. School, friends, clothes. Everything the same as ever".

" Actually Jim, your daughter has a date with a boy on Friday and she will go, if you want it or not", Amy had contacted the boy´s parents and they seemed to be really nice. The family wasn´t here that long, they just moved from some little town somewhere in Arizona.

Jim dropped his fork and it landed with a loud thud on his almost empty plate. Hastily he wiped his mouth with the napkin and then threw it on the table. " A date? But she´s only fourteen!".

Amy sensed that a fight was coming on and she didn´t want that in front of their guest. Slowly she let her gaze wander to Sean, Kyle and Maria. " Why don´t you go get some ice cream".

" Should we bring you something, too?", Maria understood the body language and knew that her mother wanted them gone. She gave the others a sign that they would be going out.

Amy smiled at their children. " No", then she turned to her husband and the smile disappeared. " You´re paying".

Grumpily Jim pulled his wallet out of his pants pocket and took twenty dollars out of it. Kyle who was the closest snatched the money out of his fathers grasp and almost ran out of the room. The others followed him, though not so fast. Lindsey hadn´t even noticed that anything was wrong, she was happily listing what ice cream flavour she could eat. As soon as the door was closed behind them, they could hear rising voices inside and immediately walked quicker to the Dodge. Finally out of earshot they all stopped and glanced at the house.

" Ten bucks that Aunt Amy is winning", Sean knew that his uncle had zero chances against woman logic and hardly against De Luca logic. He had witnessed such fights so often that he know the outcome already.

Kyle shook his head at his cousin. Usually his mother won fights with her father. But not tonight, not after he realized Maria was sexual active. " Ten bucks against it".

Maria pulled a ten dollar note out of her pants pocket and gave it Sean. " Sorry brother. I´m with Sean this time".

Kyle was surprised and it showed on his face. His sister and their cousin were agreeing on something? Unbelievable. He already thought he wouldn´t see that day. " You´re both losing your money, because Dad won´t give in this time".

" He will, because the same thing happened when I had my first date and you were there when Doug picked me up".

Sean sniggered slightly at that visual. He knew his unlce was pretty protective, but he was carrying everything too far now. Jim should get a grip on the fact that his daughters got older and would eventually leave the house to start a family on their own. " Besides Aunt Amy will threaten him with sex withdrawal".

Kyle and Maria shoot their cousin a deadly glare. How could he say something like that to them? Their parents didn´t have sex since they created Lindsey. No, their parents couldn´t do that anymore, they were like old. Michael and Tess laughed about the shocked faces and tried to hide it via turning away. If they had parents they wouldn´t want to imagine them having sex either.

" Do you think Mom and Dad are still bonking each other?", everybody faced Lindsey after those words flew out of her mouth. They looked at her like she had been mutated into Penny Wise from "IT".

Kyle was so shocked that his eyes almost popped from their sockets. Now he never had heard his sister taking such nasty words in her mouth. Well he expected something from Maria, because as much as she wanted everybody to believe she was a girlie, she could sometimes act like a sailor and she knew cusses that would make every grown man red ears. Accusingly he faced her and pointed a finger at her. " See what you´ve done. She´s got that from you and your damn cursing in front of our innocent sister".

Maria stared at her brother with an unbelievable expression. Why was he blaming her for that?" Oh yeah, everything is my fault", she rolled her eyes at Kyle and then turned to Michael. " What do you say about a midnight stroll around Roswell?".

" Sounds nice".

Maria took the hand of her boyfriend and was already in the process to drag him away from the others. " We´ll see each other later". And with that they both disappeared.

Kyle watched after them for a while before he faced his girlfriend with a small smile. " I know a nice place where we can be alone. Are you interested?".

" Alone, he? Are you trying to seduce me?", Tess raised her right eyebrow at her boyfriend. She wasn´t averse how his mind worked. After the pretty eventful evening they endured she could use a little alonetime with Kyle.

Kyle wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly at his side. " Yeah. Is it working?".

Sean turned to Lindsey and made a gagging gesture to her to show her what he thought about the antics of the couple. She in return nodded her head at him to agree. Unfortunately their jokes weren´t lost on the mentioned pair. Tess hid her blushing face on the shoulder of her boyfriend, while Kyle glared at his family. Then his expression softened for a moment and he thrust the money his father had reluctantly given away in his cousin´s hand before he steered his girlfriend away without saying anything. The remaining two people were staring baffled in front of the garden fence.

" Looks like we´re the only one eating ice cream tonight", Sean smiled at his little cousin. They had twenty bucks and they could do everything with it what they wanted. Maybe they could take a walk into Willy´s bar to check the new bets on the football games.

Lindsey´s whole face began to beam at the thought. Contrary to Sean she was imagine the many ice cream she could buy with the money they had. Now that they just had to split in two they both had ten bucks to spent, which meant she could eat herself sick with the cold sweet. " What are we waiting for then?".

**Somewhere in Roswell**

Maria was showing Michael all the important places, at least important to her. She had dragged him to the park a little down the road in which she lived. That was the place where she received her first kiss. She had been shocked and disgusted when Doug Sohn grasped her roughly one day when she was thirteen and had thrust his tongue down her throat. She gave him a black eye for the stunt and after that she was his girlfriend for six months. Then she walked with him to her old highschool, to be exact the spot where she had trained with her fellow cheerleaders everyday. She even pointed at at a patch of grass where they tried to make a pyramid and she fell down from the top and broke her wrist because she wanted to stop the impact with her hand. Unfortunately she couldn´t heal her injury with her powers, wherefore she had to wear a cast for four weeks. After that she showed him her classroom through the windows and indicated her seat, which was still looking the way she left it, with many stickers, colorful and extremly wrecked. The whole time Michael listened to his girlfriend indulging in memories and watched her face glowing when she talked about things that had happened. He loved to see her that way, she was so animated and full of joy when she spoke about happy things. Suddenly her face twisted into a sad grimace and she stared at a place in front of her. He looked up and noticed that they were standing at the gym and he knew what made her stop in her tracks. This was the spot where she meet Billy.

Slowly he stepped closer to her and took her hand in his. For a moment he was surprised at how cold it was, but then he thought about the temperature that had dropped the last minutes and he finally realized that she had to be freezin with just her t-shirt. Without thinking he pulled his black sweater over his head and slipped it over her. " Here. Now you don´t freeze to death".

Maria hadn´t even noticed how cold she had been until the warmth of Michael´s sweater was surrounding her. Gratefully she pulled it tighter around her and smelled the familiar scent, which she loved so much. Smiling she turned to her boyfriend and saw that he was only wearing a t-shirt himself. " Great, I´m warm and you freeze now. I can give you back your sweater".

" No keep it. I´m not cold. I don´t freeze so easily like you do", he was slightly cold, but he would survive it. Besides he got a pleasure out of the fact that she was wearing his clothes. Except for nude he didn´t want to see her in anything than his clothes. It was a sign that she was his and others could see it, too.

Maria knew that he was lying, she saw his lips slightly quiver. Carefully she embraced him and tried to rub a little warmth into him with her hands. She hated when he wanted to appear like he was a real man and nothing could touch him and in truth he was suffering. " I can´t let you walk around Roswell with just this small thing of cloth on your body. I grew up here and I know how cold it can get. I got lost in the desert for two days one day and when my father found me I was almost frozen to death. They had to put me into hospital until my body heat was normal again".

Michael enjoyed the little caress she was doing to him. She wasn´t even aware what she did, but it felt so great that he forgot for a moment how cold it was. All he could sense was Marias scent around him, lulling him into a calmness that he never possessed before. " Oh yeah, continue rubbing your hands on my body. Maybe you could change your way and go further south. There is this thing that needs a little warmth, too".

" Is that so. Poor boy. I should take care of it", while she talked her hand snaked slowly down his chest and disappeared under the waistband of his jeans. Satisfied she felt his rod already throbbing with need and swelling when she wrapped her small hand around it.

Michael sucked in air when he noticed the slight pressure on his member. His girlfriend knew which button she had to push to make him forget his surroundings. Usually he wasn´t a person who liked to have sex at public places. But since he met Maria he wanted to take her at every place he could, no matter where they were and who was watching. " Oh yeah. You have really talented hands. I think I will keep you".

Maria smiled at him before she started to take her other hand to open the zipper of Michaels jeans, all the while holding eye contact with him. She even used her powers to make it quicker and give her hand a little more room to explore. " Do you know that you´re talking too much? Take your lips and put them to good use".

" As you wish", Michael liked it that his girlfriend was different than every other girl he ever dated. She wasn´t someone that needed to talk during sex, she usually was quiet, except for moaning and here and there a few dirty words, which seemed to spur him on until he almost exploded. So without saying anything he pressed his lips on hers with much force while his hands disappeared under sweater and were making their way over her smooth stomach to her satin clad breasts.

They both were so busy with trying to get cozy with each other without shredding their clothes that they didn´t notice that they weren´t alone anymore. At least until a blinding light was shining down on them and a voice was telling them to raise their hands. Shocked both jumped apart with blushing faces and did what they were told to do. Maria put herself in front of Michael to hid the fact that his zipper was down.

" Maria? Is that you?".

Maria breath out relieved. Holy shit she almost got a heart attack. Squinting in the light she tried to indentify the owner of the voice, although she remembered the person already. But she wanted to be sure. " Yeah it´s me. Hanson, can you put the light out. I´m almost blind here".

Immediately darkness engulfed them again. For a moment the couple saw lots of tiny white dots bouncing in front of their eyes until they got accostumed to the dark once more. Now they finally spotted the young man standing a few feets away from them. He was wearing a beige uniform, black polished shoes and a brown jacket. His dark blond hair was short and made his ears look bigger. His brown eyes were sparkling with happiness and his mouth had been stretched to a smile. In his right hand was a flashlight and his left hand was at his belt dangerous close to his weapon there. He obviously had expected someone different than the daughter of his boss almost getting it on at her former school. " When did you arrive?".

" A few hours ago. Thought I graze my hometown with my presence so that the people don´t forget me", Maria smiled at the man, glad to see him again. She knew him since he started working for her father five years ago when Hanson was fresh out of police academy. She had to admit he was her first crush when she was thirteen, even before her first kiss with Doug. But she knew that she didn´t have a chance with him, because he was eight years older then her and more experienced.

Hanson eyed her with a new view. Well he always knew that she was beautiful, every man could see that. But he always thought of her like a sister. Maybe it was the fact that he saw her everyday that he didn´t really see her anymore. But this few months she was gone she had changed in his eyes. " Don´t worry. Nobody will forget you here. Especially after the thing you did last year".

Michael was slightly getting angry at the bluntly lustfilled gaze of the other man towards his girl. He was a guy and he knew when a woman was stripped mentally of her clothes. But when he heard the last sentence he forgot about that for a moment. Curiously he glanced at Maria. " What did you do last year?".

" I chained myself at an old oak and tried to save it from getting deforested. Unfortunately for the workers, others followed my example and within a few hours almost the whole town was protecting the oak. My father had to arrest me and a few others, among them my mother, Liz and Alex", Maria shrugged her shoulders. It wasn´t a big deal, she just put herself out for something she believed in. This oak had been standing at its place for nearly 200 years and some rich construction firm thought it should make place for a new mall or parking block. She was her mothers daughter, it was part of her genes.

Hanson snorted loudly. She made it sound so peacefully and nice. It was everything but that. " Yeah. Your father had needed reinforcement from two others cities to get the madding crowd under control. You almost stired up a revolt, because of a tree".

Maria rolled her eyes at him. He was saying that like she was a criminell. It wasn´t her fault that she wasn´t the only one protecting this oak. Besides how should things get better when nobody has the guts to stand up for it? Somebody had to do the first step, the rest would come alone then. " And? It worked. This tree is still standing, isn´t it?".

" Yeah, because your father found an agreement with the owner of the construction firm or else you would have went behind bars for a short time".

Michael watched the interaction between his girlfriend and the deputy. Maria seemed to have more inside her than it appeared. Not only had she been a cheerleader, a good student, a jailbird and a hot waitress, but a strong headed person, who stood up to change something. He admired such people and he was proud that she was his girlfriend. He bent closer to her and whispered in her ear. " You can chain yourself anytime at my body. And don´t worry I won´t call the cops".

Maria noticed the heat rising in her body at the suggestion. Damn him, now she was getting horny again. They needed to find a cozy spot where they wouldn´t be discovered soon or she would take Michael right in front of Hansons eyes. " I don´t want to be rude or anything, but we are expected at home. Maybe we can talk another time".

" No problem. We probably see each other again the next few days. Be careful at this time", Hanson nodded at the couple, smiled extra sweet at Maria and then disappeared in the dark.

Michael gawked unbelievingly after the retreating back of the other man. How dare he flirt with his girlfriend in front of his eyes. Great, now he had to look out for Larek, Billy and this Hanson guy. Why did she have to look so beautiful? " Is there one man in this town not secretly in love with you?".

Maria turned around and stared at him confused? What did he mean with that and why was he asking that now? " What? Why you´re asking me that?".

" Because everytime I get to know someone from Roswell they´re flirting with you", Michael tried to stay calm, he really did. But he could feel the Rath part of him close to break from his bonds inside him. The selfish part of him who wanted Maria just to belong to him.

Maria was pleased that he was jealous and angry that he was treating her like an object, again. She didn´t know why he made such a fuss about a nice conversation with a friend. Hanson was like a family member to her. Not exactly like a brother, but more of a cousin, at least a cousin she liked. " Now you´re exaggerating. It was just Larek and he just wanted to see how far he could go with you".

Michael couldn´t understand how such a bright young woman, could be so dumb when it came to the male gender. Why didn´t she noticed the attention she got from men, no matter which age, confession or skin color? Even children she didn´t know were smiling at her when she walked by. He couldn´t describe what it was that made her so special, but nontheless it was there. " Open your eyes girl! They´re all after a piece of your ass!".

" And you should know that my ass belongs to you, nobody else! If you want to see him tonight, I suggest you shut your trap and continue what we started earlier!", Maria loved this bickering between them. It was their kind of foreplay and she enjoyed it immensely when Michael glared at her with his darkened eyes. In those moments she saw Rath in him and the part that belonged to Marianna wanted to come out to play.

Before she could react, Michael grasped her roughly around her middle and lifted her from the ground. Seconds later he started to kiss her with such an intensy that she tasted blood on her lips and her head began to spin. She couldn´t get enough of him and the feeling he awoke in her. She didn´t know that sex could feel like that. So energizing, alive and unbelievable satisfying. If she had something to say, they both wouldn´t rise from their bed ever again. They just would stay under the warm cover and love each other until they would die.

**Other side of town**

Kyle and Tess had been walking down the mainstreet for a while and had watched the shops along the way. They saw the videostore, which had this huge section about alien movies, the travel agency with the strange name " Time Traveller ", the Crashdown and even Amy Valentis little shop with alien souvenires and esoterism things. All the time both were holding hands and Tess listened to the stories her boyfriend told her. Here and there she laughed about something funny, but other than that she was quiet. She loved this small town with their small businesses. Every people coming their way had been greeting Kyle friendly and they even knew his name. Girls started to giggle when he looked at them and young men joked with him. A few young woman glared at her, like she was stealing their best friends boyfriend or something. Of course she shoot them a mean glare back, because she wasn´t someone that let herself intimitaded from some little snipes. Kyle didn´t realize anything of it, he had been too busy with explaining his girlfriend the best places to get a decent meal, apart from the crashdown. He promised her that he would invite her to dinner at Senior Chow´s, an expensive restaurant with the best mexican food in new mexico, when they had time. At the moment they were lying on Kyle´s jacket in the park near the playground. They observed the many stars on the sky.

" Do you think your life up there was better?", Kyle had finally the chance to talk to his girlfriend about everything they learned. He had been scared to ask Maria about that, because she reacted pretty bitchy everytime he mentioned her past life.

Tess, who had her head lying on Kyle´s chest looked up at him. He never talked to her about her alien side and she had been scared to start with the topic in case he wanted to block it out. " It wasn´t exactly better or worse, although on Antar I had parents. It was different. I loved my life up there and I love my life here".

Kyle thought about it. It had to be strange to remember two lifes. She had to compare both with each other, because she had the chance to change her path this time and not make the same mistakes. She even could hold her brother responsible for things he made wrong in their former lifes. " Do you sometimes wish to be with Max?".

" No or do you see me with him? If I would have wanted to be with him I would have done it. I´m with you because I wanted it, because you were cute and because I liked you. I don´t have feelings for Max, besides friendship. What we had is over and done".

Kyle took Tess´ hand and kissed it tenderly. What she said had touched something in him and he was glad that she wasn´t still in love with Mr. Boring. Now he could delete one question from his mental checklist and concentrate on the hundred others. " Can you tell me how Maria was? She doesn´t talk to me about it and everytime I bring up the subject she either explodes or leaves the room".

Tess went deep in her mind where she had put almost all her memories from Antar. She hadn´t been so tight with Marianna like Vilandra or Rath, but she had seen what kind of person she had been. Even if she hadn´t trusted the other girl at first. " Marianna hadn´t much told about her life before she came to the castle. But after everything I heard and got told from Vilandra, her childhood hadn´t been the best. Her father had been a cold man, her brother hated her and her fiance hadn´t trusted her powers. Rath found her almost dead in some boat. My parents took her in when it looked like she couldn´t remember what happened to her. We started to like her, because she was nice, a little quiet and reserved, but nice. Then we got the news that she was the daughter of our enemy and she was accused of killing her mother. Thankfully Vilandra learned the truth or else we would have arrested her for something she hadn´t done. After that she was part of our family and she was a good friend. She had made my brother happy and I had loved her for that".

Kyle listened intently about the things he got told and he understood his sister a little better. No wonder she had such a tight bond with their father, because she needed to make good what she missed. And now he even got why she reacted so strongly about his outburst. It must have struck a nerve with her. " Had she been happy with Rath?".

" Yes. As much as she had loved him, he had loved her. Isabel told me that Rath proposed to Marianna before they went into the battle and she said yes. So I can say she had been happy".

Kyle was glad to hear that. He wouldn´t have liked the idea that his sister had lifed a crappy life and not experienced something good. He always wanted to picture her with a smile on her face and a song on her lips. " What about you? Have you been happy?".

Tess remembered the time she shared with Zan in the castle. The many times they had sneaked from their rooms to meet each other somewhere secluded. The few times they almost got busted and the many stolen kisses in between. Rath had often teased her how sick it was to see her bouncing through the halls with this big smile on her face. " Yeah I have".

" More than right now?".

Tess slowly crawled on her boyfriends body and looked deeply in his eyes. She pressed his hands besides his head and bent closer to him until their noses almost touched each other. " Depends if you stop talking and do something say more daring".

Quickly Kyle rolled his body around and trapped his girlfriend under him. Easiest thing he ever had to do to make a girl happy. Smiling brightly he got to work. Nobody should say he couldn´t please his girlfriend.

**Two hours later**

The two couples arrived at the same time at the house. The girls hairs were messy, the lip gloss smudgy and partly on their boyfriends lips, the clothes a little wrinkled and dirty at some places. But the expression was more telling than the appearance. It was pretty obvious what the pairs had been doing when they were gone. However before they stepped into the house the boys glared at each other while the girls were straighten their hairs again. After that they finally made their way inside. All the while thinking about the day that was still coming and their little alonetime would be the last for the next 24 hours.

TBC


	48. Chapter 48

**Thanx to RedJewel2662. **

**Chapter 48 Thanksgiving dinner and the aftermath**

The next morning the people in the castle Valenti were up early, although some of the kids would have liked to sleep a little longer, because they fell asleep rather late. Thankfully Amy just knocked at the doors of the bedroom to wake them up and didn´t look inside. Because then she would have noticed that Michael wasn´t sleeping on the spare mattress besides Kyle´s bed and Tess not besides Marias. As soon as the clock had been ringing midnight the siblings had changed their sleeping arrangement to be with their other half. Of course everything happened really quietly, because they would have drawn the attention of their parents, which slept in the room right from Marias or Lindsey rooming left from Kyle´s. Now hours later, the four had managed to crawl successfully out of the bed and even managed to look well rested, even if it wasn´t the case by a few of them. Here and there a yawn would be hidden behind a hand or eyes were on the brink to close. And yet Amy didn´t see any of that. Maybe that was because she was too excited to think clearly at the moment. She was smiling brightly at everybody and had a bounce in her step.

" Don´t worry about her. She´s like that every year. She doesn´t see her family so often", Maria explained her boyfriend when they were standing in front of the staircase, already waiting for their assignments for the day. It was the same procedure every year.

Michael just picked up half of the sentence. Part of his brain was still upstairs in the nice, cozy bed, which smelled like Maria. Bloody hell, he thought he could sleep in during his vacation and not be up before dawn. All right, it wasn´t exactly so early, but it felt like that to him right now. " Why couldn´t we sleep longer? I´m still dead tired".

Maria tenderly caressed his right cheek. " Poor baby. I know you didn´t have enough sleep, but remember it´s just for today. Tonight everything is over and we can enjoy the rest of the weekend".

" So. I hope you rested enough last night, because there´s so much to do and you all will help me", Amy stated cheerfully. She even overlooked the wasted looking youth in front of her. Well, she knew they were still tired, but she couldn´t take that in consideration right now. She had been digging out her plan from last year. She turned to the two boys closest to her. " Kyle and Michael, you will drive to the airport and get the grandparents. Bring them to the hotel on mainstreet, help them unpack their suitcases and then bring them back here", she faced her husband and her nephew and pointed with her finger at them. " You both whip the garden into shape and no excuses", then she let her eyes wander to the remaining family members. " Lindsey, Maria and Tess, your assigments are the cleaning of the house and the decoration while I´ll cook".

The boys mocking saluted as soon as Amy turned their backs on them. At least three of them knew how busy it would be getting today and how much better it was to be away from this madhouse for the next hours. Grinning gleefully they made their way to the upstairs bedrooms to change into street clothes and make them presentable. The girls meanwhile huddled together and spoke about their assignment. Surprisingly quick they worked out a plan and who would do what. Tess had the order to think about the decoration, Lindsey was in charge of the upper floor and Maria took the first floor. Sometime later the males came back down from changing their clothes. Michael and Kyle kissed their girlfriend goodbye while Jim and Sean immediately sneaked outside to get to work.

**5 hours later**

The house was slowly filling with many people. Every place and every corner was crowded with people animatedly talking to each other. Children were running through the rooms and screamed loudly. In the midst stood Maria and Michael, both looking like they just jumped out of a vanity fair magazine. She was wearing a long tight white pin striped skirt with the matching blouse. Her hair was falling around her shoulders in slight waves and drew attention to the implied cleavage. Her Make up was simple, she just used a bit of mascara to accentuate her sparkling green eyes and a dab of lip gloss. Michael meanwhile had choosen a casual style. He was wearing a blue jeans, a white shirt and a black jacket. His hair was neatly brushed backwards and gel was holding it there. His cheeks were sporting slight red spots from the many pinching from the Valenti and De Luca clan. Both sets of grandparents already took him into her hearts and hoped that they would see each other more often. Maria was encouraging standing besides him and holding his hand. She knew how overwhelming her family could be and some of them were even a little from the slight crazy kind.

" You´re almost through. Just a few minutes of smiling and you´re free. Then we can go outside until the dinner".

Michael relaxed immediately. Even if the people he got to know today had been nothing but nice to him, he was glad when he could give his face a little rest. He would get cramps tomorrow from all the grinning and talking. He didn´t know how exhausting it could be to be friendly towards other. " Thank god. I don´t feel my cheeks anymore. Are they still there?".

Maria turned to him and took his face in her hands to eye it properly. Except for a few lipstick marks on his cheeks, two or three bursted blood vessels and one imprint of an fingernail there wasn´t anything unusual. " Yeah they´re still there. But let me check it correctly", slowly she bent forward and gave him a kiss on his reddened cheek. " Did you feel that?".

" Yes. But now it wandered to my lips. I think you should check that, too", Michael smiled down at her while his arms snaked around her body and pulled her to him. He momentarily forgot that he was standing in a house full of Maria´s family members and her overprotective father.

Until her paternal grandmother drew the attention of the others on the lovestruck pair in the middle of the room. " Oh look at them. They´re so sweet. I miss the beginning of a new relationship, when everything is so new and exciting", she faced her husband with a frown. " Why can´t you be more romantic, Morty?".

The adressed older man snorted loudly at his wife. She wanted romantic after almost fivty years of marriage? Either she was senile or she hit her head somewhere. " Because I don´t need it anymore. I´ve got you. We´re married for heavens sake!".

" Does that mean that a woman shouldn´t except something romantic after the marriage? That she will be romanced until the man has her in the sac or what?", the elder lady asked angrily. Her hand had made it´s way on her slightly broad hip and her eyes were sparkling dangerously.

Morty looked to his two sons, asking for help with his glance. But unfortunately they both just smiled at him before they turned around. Traitor! The both of them! He raised them, gave them shelter, food everyday and that was the way he was thanked for that! Grinning innocently he faced his wife again. " Now Estel. That wasn´t what I meant. You misunderstood me".

Estel´s glare intensified and it looked like she wanted to kill him for a moment. But then she turned on her heel and walked quickly in the direction of the kitchen all the while muttering something about dicks thinking they ruled the world, when in reality it was the woman behind them. Before she dissappeared from sight they just heard her say that Morty could sleep in the bathroom when they came home.

Maria giggled into the shoulder of her boyfriend. She had hid her face there as soon as she heard her grandmother talking about them. At first she had been embarrassed at being caught kissing Michael in front of her whole family. But then she thought that everybody should see that she was in love, they hadn´t done anything disgusting like making out or trying to undress each other. It wasn´t a shame to express their love. Her Parents made that often and they didn´t care who was present or not. " Tell me that my family has found something else to do than watching us".

Michael was still trying to get his heating cheeks under control. He had never felt so weird like he did now. Here he was standing in the house of his girlfriend, full of her family and he had been kissing her in front of the crowd. Unfortunately they hadn´t turned their attention away from them and some even grinned in their direction. Yeah that was helping him immensely calming down. " Sorry. I think we have to escape to get away from their prying eyes".

" That´s what I thought. Do you see my brother somewhere?", Maria still had buried her face on Michaels shoulder. She just wanted to be away from her family for the moment and maybe Kyle could help her vanish without anyone noticing it. He was good at creating a scene and holding the attention for awhile.

Michael let his gaze wander through the room, looking for his best friend or at least his sister. Immediately he saw a familiar blonde curly head standing out from a circle of people standing by the window talking. Well it wasn´t as much her hair that drew the attention as much as the designer dress she was wearing. It was creamcolored with black flowers painted on it, creamcolored spaghetti straps and a black velvet band tied under her breasts. She was looking the exact opposite to Kyle, who was just dressed in a black shirt and black jeans. His hair didn´t look like any different from his usual styling. " Yeah. I´ve found him and Tess".

Maria finally dared to take a peek and turned her head away from the comfortable place at her boyfriends shoulder to glance at her brother and her roommate. They were as it seemed to be involved in a witty conversation with two of her uncles and their wifes. " Try not to appear to obvious. Follow after me. But without attracting too much attention".

" What are you doing?", yeah fat chance of disappearing without anybody noticing it. Marias family was eyeing them like hawkes. How should they make a retreat if anybody was staring at them? Oh shit, it wasn´t even time to eat and he already gave reason to gossip and one more reason for her father to hate him more. Maybe he should start saying goodbye to his beloved penis, because after today he would never see him again.

Maria grinned reassuringly at him. She knew what she was doing, Kyle and her had a few years of training to escape their family at such events. They often had made emergency plans beforehand and sometimes they even had put it into practise. Now it seemed like this year was no exception. " Just be quiet and let me speak". She breathed deeply in before she walked straight in the direction of her brother with her most charming smile. " Hey guys".

Immediately the people stopped talking and turned their attention towards her. One of the men stepped forward and embraced her wholeheartly. He had dark brown hair with a few grey parts, brown warm eyes and he was as tall as Michael. " Hey sweety. Finally found the time to come to your favourite uncle, he?".

" What? Is uncle James here?", Maria looked around like she was searching for someone. Then she faced her uncle with a evil grin before she jumped slightly when he pinched her side. " All right. You are my favourite uncle".

Now the other man besides them started to cross his arms over his bulky chest. His blue eyes were glaring at Maria and he was looking like her father at this moment. He coughed quietly behind his hand to get the attention. " I always thought I was your favourite uncle?".

Maria shrugged her shoulders. " I´m sorry uncle Robert, but uncle Pete makes the better presents". Of course that was just a joke and everybody laughed about it. " Oh my. Aunt Helen, I can finally see your belly. You got bigger since the last time I saw you".

The red haired woman stroked over the bulging belly with a happy expression. She was emitting this glowing like every expectant mother and her dark green eyes were glinting joyful. " Don´t remind me. I look like a fat sumo wrestler and I feel like an overriped tomatoe on the brink to explode".

" I think you look wonderful", Maria was a family man, the more the better. Even if she had always complained about not having any privacy or the occupied bathroom, she couldn´t imagine her life any different. She wouldn´t want to change a thing in it. Maybe it was because of the way she had been growing up on Antar and now the Marianna part of her wanted to make up for all the lost opportunities.

Pete laid an arm around his wife´s shoulder and chuckled slightly. " See. I told you the same. Hopefully now you finally believe me".

The black haired woman, who had been quiet the whole time, entered the fray now. " Yeah. Like that will happen. She´s pregnant and until this thing doesn´t pop out of her, she will feel like that".

" True. Victoria told my nothing else throughout the whole pregnancy", Robert made a face at the others while his wife punched his arm. Grinning he embraced her lovingly to tell her he wasn´t serious about that.

Tess and Maria turned to each other and grimaced. They still had a birth in front of them. Not that they were to keen to experience it in the next few years after the description they just received, but they wanted children. Although it was still a little early to tell if they would even marry someone. They didn´t even know if they still would be with Michael and Kyle that long.

" I think we scared the girls a bit. But believe me, when you see your child for the first time you forget immediately the pain, the worry, the swelling of the feet and the added weight", Victoria should know it, she gave birth to two children already. Strangly her figure didn´t suffer under it and she was slim as a teenage girl. Just the slightly wider hips showed that she had been carrying around medicine balls.

Pete noticed the paniced expression of the young men. Yeah, he thought like that when he was a teenager, too. But then he found the right woman and the right time and now he wouldn´t want his life any different. Even if his wife was often like two persons in one. First she´s normal and talks to him in her usual voice and then bam, she starts screaming or crying and mutats in this psycho person. " What are you both thinking about children?".

Kyle´s eyes widened and he swallowed visibly. Oh Oh, why was his uncle asking him that? Damn now he had to find an answer fitting for calming his family and satisfying his girlfriend. " I uh never thought about it actually. I uh mean I´m still young and I still have enought time to think about it when I´m older and married".

" That´s a good anwers", Pete was pleased with the things his nephew told him. It was smart not to rush into anything. They still had time. Slowly he faced Michael, who´s expression was rivaling that of Kyle. He had seen the boy kissing his niece and it wasn´t looking innocent. " And you?".

Michael tucked uncomfortable at his collar. Was it hot in here or what? He was sweating like crazy and the air seemed to get stuffy. Oh god, he was getting his first panic attack! He needed fresh air immediately. But suddenly he felt Maria taking his hand in hers and the action calmed him. " I´m with Kyle on that. I mean we just started college, we want to see the world and experience many things".

Robert´s face twisted into a mask of anger. The tigh fists at his side were clenching and unclenching. His tall height and his trained body were appearing threatenly. " Are you implying that my niece is just an experience for you and as soon as it will get more intense you will throw her away?"

" Of course not. I´m through with that. We´re in love right now. I don´t know if it will hold until we both die or not. But I can guarantee that if I would have not any feeling towards Maria I would say it immediately and she knows that", Michael was so sick of the male family member. Everybody was deeming him as the enemy as it seems. All of the females had loved him and told him that, too. But the men were trying to protect Maria like a treasure.

Maria was slowly getting pissed at her uncles. She had expected that rude behaviour from her father, but not from them. She was tempted to blast them into the next millenium at the moment. How dare them treat her boyfriend like that. All right, they loved her and wanted to look out for her, she knew that. But she wasn´t some damsel in mistress or defenseless, especially towards Michael. " You know what. I´m so fed up with being treated like a dumb little child. You have something against my boyfriend, fine. But keep your opinion to yourself, okay?", she had to pause suddenly to breath. She could feel her power trying to break from her body and she needed much strength to prevent that from happening.

Immediately Michael noticed something was not right and wrapped his arms around her to hold her upright. She didn´t look like she was stable on her feet any longer. " What´s wrong? Should we go outside to get fresh air?".

" Yeah", Maria rubbed her temples with slow movement. She hadn´t even known that her body had that much power in it. She was drained from using so much strenght to fight for holding everything in, because she would have destroyed the house otherwise.

Kyle and Tess made a move to go with them, but Michael put them both of. He could do it alone, he didn´t need help taking care of his girlfriend. Besides he wanted to be with her without her whole family eyeing them. Careful he pushed a way through the crowd in the living room and led Maria out of the house. When he breathed in the air he felt that his body started to relax again. He didn´t even know that he had been uptight the whole time. Slowly he walked to the white bench, sat down and pulled his girlfriend on his lap. He was a little hurt that her family didn´t like him and showed it openly. Crestfallen he hid his face in her hair and smelled the unmistakable scent of Maria. It was always a mystery to him how she made it that she smelled like a fruit basket mixed with something spicy. But he liked the flavor and it calmed him everytime. Seconds later he felt her hands taking his arms and wrapping them around her body. Then she took his hands and interwined them with hers.

" I´m so sorry for just now. I don´t know what possessed them to act like that".

Michael pulled her tighter at his body and laid his chin on her shoulder. He liked it that they both didn´t have to say something to know how the other felt. And he liked it that they both felt so comfortable with each other that they just could spent their time not talking. " Don´t worry. They just want to protect you".

Maria sensed that the things her uncles had said to him were hurting him more than he let on. " But that doesn´t give them the right to treat you like that. You´re not some criminal for heavens sake".

" Can we just not talk about it? I want to enjoy the last minutes before we have to go back and they can ring the next round?", Michael was determined to prove to the male members of Marias family that he was worth her and he would always treat her like an equal. Too bad that he couldn´t tell them about their past lifes and that their love survived even death. They had been apart for 18 years and suddenly they went to the same college and found each other again. If they weren´t meant to be then who was?

Maria lowered her head and laid it on his shoulders while her right thumb was drawing circles on his hand. " Whatever you want".

**Inside**

Jim and Amy were standing in front of the window and watched their daughter snuggle with her boyfriend. They both looked content and so in tune with each other that it appeared like they both just existed to be with the other. It was beautiful to see them like that, like Shakespeare himself had written their love.

" I hate him".

Amy turned to her husband after he said that. She thought he was slowly warming up to Michael, at least it appeared so. " Why? I think he´s a wonderful boy. I like him".

Jim sighed defeated, because this exactly was his problem with his daughters boyfriend. He was a young man from a good family, he had money, could give Maria the life she deserved, he had ambitions and most of all, he really loved her. He was the kind of man he always wanted for his daughter. " I like him, too. But he will be the one taking my child away from me".

" Oh honey", Amy had to do everything to keep her laughter in. Finally she understood his more than rude behaviour. At first she thought he was just worried that Michael was some loser like Billy had been and he wanted to protect his daughter from making the same mistake again. But now she knew that he was just scared that he wouldn´t be the only man in Marias life anymore and she would leave the house soon. " You don´t know that. They could break up tomorrow and you would have been worried for nothing".

Jim shook his head at his wife. He had a pretty good instinct and it was telling him that his daughter and this boy would be forever. If he wanted or not, he was just looking at his future son in law. " No Amy. He´s like Maria. I felt it as soon as laid my eyes on him. He´s special like her".

Amy bit her lip worriedly. She had noticed the same as soon as Michael stepped into the kitchen. But she thought she was just imagine things and that her mind was playing tricks. Obviously it wasn´t the case, because her husband was rather clueless in this area and if he realized the same, then it must be true. " You felt it, too, he".

" Yeah and it bothers me that I can´t hate him, because it would be like I would hate my own child", Jim knew from the moment his daughter sneezed and destroyed the good china vase in the process, that Maria wasn´t like any children. She was special and he made sure that not the wrong people knew of her gift. He even took the evidence from the crime scene at the crashdown, where Liz Parker had been shot and miraculously healed within minutes. He knew that his daughter and her best friend lied to him, when they told him the lame story about the supposedly ketchup, which he later found out was real blood. But he kept this things for himself, because he trusted Maria and he knew that one day she would come to him and trust him with her secret.

Amy kissed her husbands cheek and then snuggled her head on his shoulder. She loved it when he played papa bear trying to protect his young ones, a reason why she was still in love with him. He was a devoted father and he took his role pretty seriously. " Then maybe you should let him know that. Cut him some slack".

Suddenly Jims body tensed up and he let out an angry growl. " What is this scum doing here?".

" Holy shit", Amy just discovered the worst scenario that could happen in a new relationship. The appearence of the ex boyfriend.

**Outside**

Michael was on the brink to fall asleep, lulled from the rocking motion, the quiet melody Maria was humming and the calming scent in the air. But suddenly he felt his girlfriend stiffening in his arms and she made a startled noise in her throat. Alarmed he opened his eyes and looked past her to the front of the garden. There stood Billy with an angry expression on his face. His clothes were dirty and it appeared like he hadn´t washed for some time now. He was looking like a homeless person, if not worth.

Maria stood up from her comfortable place and walked closer to her ex boyfriend. She was shocked about his appearance and even if he treated her badly, she still worried about him. " Billy. What happened to you?".

" This is what happens when you lose the person you love", Billy pointed at his clothes and his face, which hadn´t seen a razor for weeks. In his right hand was a brown paper bag with what seemed to be J.Ds. in it.

Michael followed Maria and put himself in front of her. He didn´t trust this guy one bit and after the stunt he pulled the first time he saw him, he wouldn´t do that the near future. " What are you doing here? Didn´t I tell you to never come near her again or I would kill you?".

Billy raised the bag to his mouth and took a swig from the bottle. Then he threw it with much force in the direction of Michael, who could avoid getting hit at the last minute. " It´s your fault that I lost Maria. If you hadn´t entered the picture I would still be happy with her. You destroyed everything".

" Please Billy. We can talk about everything another time, but not now. You´re not thinking clearly at the moment and you will probably say things you regret", Maria was scared that something bad would happen. The house was full with her family, who hated him from the moment they saw him. If they would see him, blood would be flowing.

Billy staggered drunkenly towards the house." No. I won´t move away from here until I speak my mind".

Michael made a threatening step forward. He didn´t want this piece of shit anywhere near Maria right now and he would do anything to keep it that way. " I will just say this once and I hope you listen, because if you don´t it will get painful. Piss off and crawl back in your hole. Maria doesn´t want anything to do with you. She´s with me now".

" You brainwashed her! She wasn´t like that with me! You changed her!

Maria pushed Michael softly aside and went to Billy. She didn´t want a scene here, in front of her home and in front of witnesses. Besides half of her family were cops and she was sure that in the next few minutes her uncles and her father would barge out there and hurt someone. " Listen to me. I´m really sorry for the way things went between us. It wasn´t pretty fair from me and I apologize for the pain I have caused you. But Michael had nothing to do with our break up. Our relationship was already over before I went to college, we just weren´t brave enough to admit it".

Billy turned his head in another direction and wiped at his eyes with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. Slowly he faced Maria again and it was evident that he was close to cry. " It wasn´t over for me".

" Don´t listen to him. He´s just trying to pull you in again. You can´t trust him", Michael didn´t believe this drama for one moment. But he had to admit, Billy was a really good actor and if he wouldn´t be such a good reader of emotions, he would have really believed it.

Maria already knew that something wasn´t right at this picture, but she wasn´t sure how far Billy would go to get what he wanted. She just wanted to prevent from someone getting hurt or worse killed, because she had seen that her ex boyfriend was in the possession of a few illegal weapons. She hoped he left them at home today. " How about we two meet somewhere and talk about everything that bothered us? You know drawing a final stroke under our relationship?"

Billy appeared like he pondered the possibility for a few seconds before he shook his head. Suddenly his hand shoot forward and grasped Maria forcefully on her arm. " No. I don´t want that. You´re staying with me forever".

" Hey, keep your hands off of her, bastard", Michael immediately reacted and tried to push Maria away from the crazy man. He was slowly starting to piss him off and he wasn´t exactly the most peaceful person on this planet. On second thought on every other planet probably, too. But as soon as he touched his girlfriend, he was bombarded with flashes.

_**FLASH**__ - Marianna talking to a young man with dark hair. They both laughed about something. All of the sudden the boy bent forward and kissed her. _

_**FLASH**__ - They both resting on the sand in front of the red sea. Snuggling lovingly in each others arms and talking quietly. A giggle escaped Marianna while the boy drew hearts on her palms._

_**FLASH **_– _Marianna and the boy snuggling under a blanket. Obviously after they made love, according after the lack of clothes. Both smiled_ _happily_

_**FLASH **_– _The boy kneeling on the ground with one knee. In his right hand was a small casket with a ring in it. In his other was a single bright pink flower. Marianna was wiping her tears from her face before she embraced him. _

Michael reeled back from the force. He was slightly confused what just happened and from where he received those pictures. But suddenly it dawn on him who was standing in front of him and why he always felt this raging hatred for this lowly creature. " I would say my last prayer right now, because you won´t have the chance again when I´m through with you"

Maria had tears in her eyes when she opened them again. Why hadn´t she felt something before? She should have noticed who he was from the beginning. " Lykus. What are you doing here?"

" I´m here to get back what is mine", he stroked her cheek lovingly with his right hand. Didn´t she realize how much she meant to him, that he even went against every rule to be with her? If his king knew what he was doing here, he would be killed. There was just one person knowing about his relationship with Marianna.

Michael finally had enough from the advances from this scumbag. Powerful he slapped away the hand caressing his girlfriends cheek. He was the only one allowed to touch her in any kind. " I said keep your hands off of her!Are you not grasping the concept of pissing off!"

Before either Maria nor Michael could react, Lykus pulled an army knife out of his jacket and held it towards them. " I´m so sick of you and the way you always treated me. Now I will show you who´s the better man".

" Then let´s do it. I´ve waited a long time for this moment", careful Michael pushed Maria behind him and tried to get her out of harms way. He didn´t want anything happen to her. Besides that was just a thing between this wanker and him.

Maria ignored the attempt from her boyfriend to protect her and stepped between both men. She wanted to stop them from doing something stupid and prevent them from harming each other. She didn´t want neither of them injured or killed. " Are you both mental? My whole family is in the house behind us and if anyone sees this they won´t hesitate to intervene. You could end up in jail".

Lykus made an impression like the words got through to him and it looked like he wanted to put the knife back into his jacket. But then he pushed it towards the girl he loved more than anything else. Michael immediately shoot his right arm forward and grasped the hand with the knife, while his left arm dragged Maria behind him. For a moment he kept her at his back, just to be sure that she was safe for now and not in harms way. After that he concentrated on the motherfer trying to hurt his girl and he felt Rath breaking out from his hiding place inside him. He just needed a second and Lykus was dangling five feet from the ground and gasping for breath, because Michael had gripped him at his throat and had lifted him with one arm in the air. The knife was long forgotten and was now lying in the gras without anyone noticing it.

" Michael! Michael stop it! You´re killing him!", not that Maria would have been so sad about the fact, but it wouldn´t look too good if her father saw her boyfriend killing her ex in front of their home, especially when the family was present.

Unfortunately Michael didn´t listen to the cries. Well he couldn´t hear anything at the moment, except for the blood pumping in his ears and the beating of his heart. But otherwise he was dead to the world. All he wanted was to feel the life slowly draining out of this little cockroach and see the lights dying in his eyes. The fingers around the thoat were squeezing tighter and stronger. Lykus was struggling to get air in his lungs and hoped that the grip would ease. He was scared of the cold look from Rath´s eyes and he knew that this time not even Maria could help him anymore. She was pulling at her boyfriends arm and screamed that he should lower his hand and let the scum alive. But Michael didn´t even flinch for a second.

" Michael! Michael! Let him down and step away from him. Don´t make yourself miserable. Think about your future, son".

That sentence got finally through to him and he blinked confused at Lykus, who was close to lose his consciousness. Shocked he dropped him onto the ground and turned around to the voice saving him from doing something stupid. Surprised he saw Jim Valenti standing a few feets away and smiling at him. Then he felt the light tugging at his sleeve and he looked down into Marias face. Worriedly he took it in his hands and checked her for any kind of injury. " Are you okay? Did he hurt you?".

Maria made a strange noise between a sniffing and a laugh. " No. You pushed me out of the way before the knife could get near me".

" Are you both all right? Is anyone hurt?", Jim stepped between them and eyed the kids for stabbing wounds or even a light scratch. But thankfully it seemed that nothing had happened. Relieved he embraced his daughter tightly and prayed to god that he send her a good man in the form of Michael. Joyful he faced him. " Thank you".

Michael shrugged his shoulders. He didn´t do something out of the ordinary, he just kept the future mother of his children alive and he would do it again and again. " It was nothing".

Jim released his daughter and stared at her boyfriend unbelievingly. He thought it was nothing to dodge a fing army knife just with the strength of an arm? In his books that was something big and he saw many things everyday. " All right. We should go inside and welcome you in our family properly".

" I hope it´s not something painful, because I think I had enough action for one day", Michael noticed his hands were shaking lightly and his heart was slowly beating normal again. He was glad that Jim had stopped him from killing this bastard. For a moment he had been afraid of his Rath´s part. But after a while it just felt natural and he liked the feeling of the force. It was a great rush and he let himself get carried away with it.

Jim slapped his newest family member on the shoulder and then lead him back into the house. " Don´t worry. It won´t hurt", quietly he added. "much".

Michael heard the last part and was in the process to escape when the other man wrapped his arm around his shoulders and dragged him through the door. While they both disappeared inside, Maria stayed in the front yard and looked at the place where Lykus had been lying. He bolted as soon as Michael had released him. Unfortunately for him and luckily for her, he left something behind. It was his cellphone, which had to have fallen from his jacket when he scrambled back on his feet and ran away. Without drawing too much attention she bent down and put it in the waistband of her skirt. She would check it out later and see if it could help her finding something out. When she was sure that everything was clear in the neighborhood, she followed the men in the house and eyed the scenery again before she closed the door tightly behind her.

**After the dinner**

Michael had been the hero of the day and everyone was asking him how he had rescued the damsel in mistress without hurting himself in the process or breaking out in a sweat. Of course he couldn´t tell them the real reason for the boost of strength that made him lift a person from the ground, so he told them something that was close to the truth, but not to revealing. Jim was proudly explaining what he saw from the window and how brave Michael had been and that his first instinct was protecting Maria. Allthroughout dinner the males didn´t have anything else to talk about while the women just rolled their eyes at their mates. The poor boy didn´t have time to eat with answering this many question. At some point Amy had enough and told the men that she wanted a quiet meal. Strangly everybody kept to it after that. The rest of the dinner was held in silence. Until the plates had been emptied and the women were busy with clearing the table. Immediately the men had stood up from their chairs and made their way into the garden with their drinks. There the whole thing started from anew.

Meanwhile Maria was the only female not attending the women bonding session in the kitchen. She was sitting outside on the bench and watched the orange sun slowly disappearing behind the big mountains. Her feet was hidden under her old flintstone cover and a steaming cup of hot chocolate was standing on the armrest besides her. She was deep in thoughts and was mulling over the things that happened today. She was chiding herself for not realizing sooner that Billy wasn´t what he appeared to be and that she should have noticed it. She always felt this strange familiarity whenever they had been together. But she thought it was just her imagination. Now she knew better. The next time she listened to her instincts.

" Hey. What are you doing here? It´s a little cold".

Maria turned her head away from the sky, which was just in the process to change his color. It went from orange to red and soon it would be black. Now she faced her lover with a smile on her face. Without saying anything she lifted her cover and made a gesture that he should join her.

Slowly Michael sat besides her and put the cover over his feet while Maria snuggled tight at his body. He was strongly stinking of beer and smoke, but surprisingly it didn´t matter to her. " What is wrong? You barely touched your food in there."

" Let´s not talk about it now. We can worry about it tomorrow. I just want to enjoy this moment with you", Maria just wanted her mind to stop thinking, even if it was just for a few seconds. She knew that their vacation would be over soon and the reality would be crashing in their lifes again. The easy part of their life was over and now the hard part made an appearance.

Michael was confused about the cryptic answer he received. What was going on with her? She was so strange since the incident with her ex. " Is it because of Lykus? He won´t come back so soon, believe me. At least I hope he is smart enough not to show his ugly face here again".

Maria wondered for a moment if her boyfriend was that stupid or if he was just acting so. Wasn´t he surprised that someone from Khivars army was here on Earth? Or that he had been so close to her without her noticing it? " I´m not concerned about him. I´m concerned about the fact that he is even here. Do you think he came alone? Or that it was just coincidence he became my boyfriend? No, it was a plan. And if he had been near me all the time without me knowing who he really was, what do you think how many are here and pretened to be my friend or even my family?".

" The same thought crossed my mind, too. But you can´t starting to mistrust the people closest to you. I don´t think your family is out to kill you. They´re strange and even a little crazy, but I can assure you they´re 100 percent human. I would have felt something believe me", Michael barely had escaped from their clutches moments ago. They had been a little overwhelming at first, but now he liked them. He already had a fishing date with a few of her uncles and her father. They invited him to join the male bonding at some lake.

Maria noticed the temperature had dropped a few degrees and the wind was getting colder. She skidded more under the blanket and watched the dark sky. For the first time she thought about the life she had been living up there. The life with a cold hearted man, a self-involved halfbrother and a most absent mother. She had been kidding herself when she thought her childhood had been nice and that it hadn´t mattered to her. She had been living a lie for a long time and now when she thought back, the only bright spot in her life had been the meeting of Rath and his family. For the first time she had felt how it was to matter and to be loved, even if you did something wrong. It had been a painful experience to get that ripped away from her. Everything was calm at the moment. But she knew that it could turn in a matter of seconds and she didn´t want her family get caught in the middle, because this time they hadn´t the advantage of powers. They were just human and an easy target. " Then why didn´t you feel it with Lykus?".

Michael scratched his eyebrow embarressed. " I felt something. But I just thought it was my jealousy breaking out and playing tricks with me".

" Michael I can´t see my family getting killed again. I don´t want to. The first time had been too much, but this time it will probably destroy me", Maria was close to crying. She couldn´t bear the thought that her family could be harmed or taken away. Lykus knew how much she loved her parents, her friends and how tight her bond with her twin brother was. He even witnessed how much she would do to protect them. That were all things he could take against her.

Michael took her face in his hands and made her look at him. She was pretty rattled right now and she would make herself sick with worrying. He didn´t know what he could to make her feel better. No matter what he would say it would sound so stereo typed. Maybe he should try it with honesty. " We will prevent that from happening. We know now that he´s here and probably brought reinforcement, but we also know what we have to except. If it makes you feel better, we can call Nolak tomorrow and tell him what happened. He will know what to do".

Maria nodded slowly. She was okay with the suggestion. Breathing out relieved she gave her boyfriend a kiss. She was glad that he had been keeping a cool head or else they both would have done something stupid. Quietly she pressed herself at his body again and enjoyed the show of the nature. She just hoped that Nolak could help them keeping her family alive and healthy.


	49. Chapter 49

**RedJewel2662 – You can expect more of this action in the near future. But don´t be too sure about your first impression.**

**Chapter 49a A date with the evil**

That night Maria couldn´t sleep peacefully. Her dreams were filled with painful memories and dark visions. She witnessed again the murder of her mother, but this time it was the expressionless face of her human mother staring back at her. Her human father was motionless lying besides her. His empty eyes seemingly boring through her soul. Sadly she faced the monster across from her and let her body tremble from the rage slowly crawling up from the pit of her stomach and making his way towards her hands. She felt her power errupting from somewhere deep down in her and was just waiting to be used. But just as she wanted to unleash the most powerful blast she ever had, the person changed. Now it was Rath standing in front of her and he had the same look in his eyes when the sword went through his flesh. Immediately Maria jumped into action and wrapped her hands around his body to prevent him from crashing to the ground. Unfortunately he was pretty heavy and she collapsed together with him on the floor. Desperate she tried to find the injury like she did back then and checked him for any kind of wound that she could heal. Her hands shook when she ripped the white t-shirt from his torso. She didn´t even noticed that Rath wasn´t wearing his armour like he did the last time they saw each other alive. All she could see was the many blood streaming down his body and dripping on the ground beneath them. Her hands were soaked with it while she felt for a cut, a hole or even a scratch. But she couldn´t find anything, because the blood was keeping her from seeing something. Openly crying now she looked at his face and noticed shocked that it wasn´t Rath smiling at her, but Michael. He stretched a bloody hand towards her and stroked her cheek with it. Just as she wanted to lay her hand on it his arm dropped down.

" NOOOOOOOO!".

" Maria! Maria! Open your eyes. It´s just a dream".

Maria sprung up with her torso and was now sitting wide awake on her bed. Her heart was almost trying to escape from her chest, her hands were shaking like leafs and her hair was sticking to her sweatcoated forehead. For a second she wondered where she was and who she was. But then she saw Michael´s face staring worriedly at her. Relieved she jumped into his arms and squeezed him tightly. " Oh my god. I´m so glad that you´re alive".

Michael was confused for a moment and surprised about the strange behaviour. But he felt that it was probably about her dream or rather her nightmare she had been having. Reassuringly he caressed her back and tried to calm her. " It´s alright. Nothing happened. Everything was just a dream".

" It wasn´t a dream. It was a memory. I saw Rath and my mother dying again. But then they changed and I was staring in the dead faces of my human parents and you. I was there when you died", Maria was clutching on her boyfriend like she was drowning. She just wanted to be sure that he was real and not just a figment of her imagination.

Michael slowly rocked her while he searched his still halfway sleeping brain for something he could say to her. " I´m still alive as you have already noticed. Your mind is just occupied with what happened tonight. The appearance of Lykus has just brought up old memories".

Suddenly both startled when the door to the bathroom opened and Kyle stormed through it with a baseball bat in his hand. He was just wearing a pair of white boxer-shorts and his hair was sticking in all directions. " What´s happening? Where is the burglar?".

" Don´t move or I will blast you into million different pieces", Tess was directly behind her boyfriend with her arm outstretched in front of her and a mean glare on her face. She was only clad in an old footballshirt from Kyle and her hair looked like she put her finger into a socket. But despite that she made an appearance like it wouldn´t be healthy to stand up against her.

Michael was just in the process to tell that nobody broke in and nobody was hurt, when the other door was almost ripped from their hinges. Seconds later Jim Valenti was standing in the middle of the room with his weapon drawn and his nephew Sean at his side, who was prepared to punch everybody with his brass knuckles.

Maria would have loved to hide under her blanket. Great! Just what she needed. A damn meeting in her bedroom, because she had a nightmare. " Guys. Nothing happened here. I just had a bad dream".

" Thank god. I already thought someone tried to hurt you according to the scream", Jim dropped his gun and breathed out relieved. He imagined the worse and after the appearance of Billy he thought the bastard had dared to come here again.

Sean wasn´t so willing to release his fighting stance. His glance was staying with Michael. " And what is your boyfriend doing in your bed?".

Maria glared at her cousin and she swore that someday she would do something to him. Someday he would pay for everything he did to her. She just hoped that it was soon, because he needed a good beating. Bastard was trying to infuriate her father on Michael again. " He heard my scream and came to comfort me. We humans called that caring for each other. You should try it someday and maybe you find a girl desperate enough to stay with you".

" Funny", Sean made a grimace towards her. Like he believed that bullshit. " But how do you explain the untouched foldaway bed then? And that Tess is standing behind Kyle, who had been coming through the bathroom door?".

Thankfully Maria was spared to find a plausible lie with the appearance of her mother and her sister. Both in their pyamas and not quite awake yet. Amy rubbed the sleep out of her eyes while she surveyed the scene. " What´s going on here? Is here a secret meeting that I´m not allowed to know about?".

Jim turned away from his daughter and her boyfriend and faced his wife. He must have been scaring her with jumping from the bed and storming out of the room like the devil himself was after him. Slowly he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. " It was just false alarm. Maria had a bad dream. We can go back to bed".

" Are you okay?", Amy eyed her daughter and saw the shadows passing in her eyes. She thought Maria had outgrown the phase were she had horrible nightmares. But obviously it wasn´t like that. The only difference was now that she wasn´t coming to her for comfort. Now she had her boyfriend for that.

Maria smiled reassuringly at her mother. " Yeah I´m fine. Don´t worry".

Jim gripped the arm of his nephew and pulled him out of the room. It was late and now that they knew that nothing had happened they could go back to sleep. " All right. Then we´ll say goodnight and sleep tight".

" Yeah. You, too", Maria waited until the door closed behind her parents before she let herself slump back on her mattress. Seconds later she felt it dip under her and rolled her head to the side. She almost forgot that Tess and her brother were still present.

Kyle had dropped the bat near the door and was now sitting on his sisters bed. The scream had been scaring him to the core. It was like he thought someone was threatening his family and he felt this anger towards this person daring to touch the people he loved. " You almost gave me a heart attack, sister dear. What was the dream about?".

Maria rubbed a hand over her face and finally noticed the sweat covering her forehead. Tiredly she wiped it away and tried to brush her hair back in the process. " Just a nightmare. Nothing out of the ordinary. You know dark places, loud steps and strange noises, that kind of thing".

" I know those dreams. Had them a few times myself. Makes me afraid to go back to sleep everytime", Tess was aware about the fact that her nightmare wasn´t just something ordinary. But her best friend was like her brother in some things and she knew that Maria wouldn´t talk as long as they pushed. She would come to them when she wanted.

Kyle seemed to think the same, because he eyed his sister but didn´t say something. Instead he pushed himself off of the bed and took the hand of his girlfriend. " Okay. If nobody is in danger, we can finally go back to sleep. So goodnight".

Michael winked after them and then turned towards Maria, who was massaging her temples with her fingertips. Careful he laid himself besides her and observed her quietly. The dream had upset her more than she revealed to the outside. Thankfully he was a pretty good reader of feelings, thanks to his gift as an empath. " Are you all right? And don´t try to bullshit me. I know you better?".

Maria faced him with a slight chuckle. He was so damn cute when he acted so concerned about her. Strange that he always seemed to know what was going on inside her when nobody else noticed that something was wrong with her. " I´m better. Tired and a little scared. But otherwise good".

" Then I should protect you and prevent the bad dream from appearing again", smiling brightly Michael wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her deeper in his direction. He enjoyed the fact that her back was tightly pressed at his front and gave him access to do things with her. But he knew that nothing would happen tonight.

Maria was still surprised how much the presence of Michael could make her feel safe and secure. He just had to be near her and she wasn´t afraid anymore. Someday she would ask him what he did to her. But not tonight, she just wanted to sleep. Not sooner did the thought cross her mind did she close her eyes and was carried to a nice, warm place, where her lover was already waiting for her.

Michael heard the even breathing and gave her a quick kiss on the back of her head before closing his eyes, too.

**Late in the morning**

The guys were just out of the house and tried to catch a few fishes they could throw in the lake again, because nobody had the guts to kill those poor creatures. They just went fishing for the fun and most of all for the womenfree space. Well, it didn´t hurt that they could behave like real man in the the open and nobody was there to complain about it. Maria and her mother imagined their boys scatching themself at some place which couldn´t be seen in public, burped every few seconds and applaud the loudest fart. But they couldn´t be sure, because they weren´t allowed to come along. Actually it was good that Jim and the others were out of the house. Now the women could concentrate on more important things.

" Mum. Can I have your car?", Maria stormed in the kitchen, where her mother, a few of her aunts and her two grandmothers were sitting and probably gossiping about their husbands. All turned towards her when she stepped through the door.

Amy eyed her daughter sceptically and folded her hands on the table near her cup of tea. " And why do you need my car?".

Maria shouldn´t have surprised that her mother would do the twenties question with her. Why was it always an act in this house to get something? It wasn´t like she would take the car and kidnap some guy, hide him in some hotel and rape him. " I want to do something sisterly and go shopping with Lindsey. You know shopping for her date tonight".

" The keys are on the small cupboard in the hall", Amy was a bit disappointed that she wasn´t allowed to go with her daughters. But she was told that it wasn´t cool to go shopping with the mother, especially for a rendezvous. Kids these days. She looked at the clothes Maria was wearing, a black tight jeans and a white twin set, both ending just over her belly button and thought about Lindsey and what appearance she would make. " And don´t let her buy something too revealing!".

Maria gave her mother a loud smacking kiss on the cheek before disappearing from the kitchen and leaving the women among themself again. Fastly she ran up the stairs and got her coat and her handbag. Then she went into her sisters bedroom, where she saw Tess showing Lindsey how she should wear her hair to her date and how much make up she should use to not look to slutty. Chuckling slightly Maria lent at the doorframe and observed them for a while before she made her presence known. " Everybody going to the mall should get in gear now, because I´m not waiting".

Lindsey immediately jumped to her feet and dashed down the stairs, not even paying attention that she almost pushed her sister aside, while Tess stared startled after the retreating back of the young missy. " Did I miss something? Because I could have sworn that your sister had been with me just a few seconds ago".

" Yeah I thought I saw her, too. But I could have imagined it", Maria had always been fascinated with the reaction from Lindsey by the mention of the mall. The glowing and the happiness. Had she been like that when she was a teenager, too?

Tess walked towards her friend with her pink purse, matching her pink off the shoulder sweater and the pink sneakers, on her shoulders. Her jeans was white and huged her curves at all the right places. " I think we should go before she hot wires the car and breakes her mothers heart by becoming just like her older siblings".

Maria grimaced at her friend and then her face cleared and she stormed after Tess. " Hey did you just insult me and my brother?".

**The crashdown**

Maria parked her mothers car at the marked space in front of the restaurant. Liz had been calling this morning and asked if she could come over, because she wanted to escape her family, like every year since she got old enough to leave the house without prefect. It was almost a tradition between both friends. They met the day after thanksgiving and went somewhere. Mostly they drove to the desert, walked to a cave they had found together with Alex when they were ten years old and spent their time there. And sometimes they just cruised around town and pretended to be tourists. This year they would waste their time with looking for an outfit for the youngest Valenti offspring.

" Why are we stopping here?".

Maria turned around in her seat and glanced at her sulking sister. She was acting like a brat since she noticed that they were not driving directly to the mall. " To get Liz and I have to check something before we can go shopping. But if you want we can go immediately, just that I won´t have enough time then and you know how annoying I can get when I´m in a hurry".

Lindsey crossed her arms over her chest and huffed angrily. She had to choose between getting a beating or be afraid of the beating. Her sister was really mean and she seemed to enjoy her evilness, too. " Do whatever you want".

" Hey, don´t make such a sad face. I promise I will make it short and then we have four hours to spent in the mall", Maria hated when her sister seemed to be mad at her. It was an open wound from her past life and she had carried it over into this life.

Lindsey pouted for a moment longer before the corner of her mouth twitched up and she started to smile. She couldn´t stay angry at her siblings too long, because even if she always complained about them she was glad that she had them. They could be annoying sometimes, but when she look at other siblings she had made a better deal. " All right, you won. But now go and I´ll expect a huge milkshake after the shopping tour".

Maria laughed at her sister. She was really beginning to become like her in some things. " You´ve got yourself a deal", after that faced Tess, who had been observing the sisterly battle with a touch of amusement. " You get Liz and I´ll visit Brody".

" Brody? Why? Did something happen?", Tess had a bad feeling and it intensified the moment she mentioned Lareks human name. What was so important that she had to talk to him? Had it something to do with the fight yesterday? Was this the reason why Michael and Maria acted so strange since the incident? She knew that there had been more to the story than they both had told her and Kyle. She had seen it in her brothers eyes. He was good in most things, but he couldn´t lie to her and she had detected a tang of worry in his glance, something she never had witnessed before.

Maria felt always guilty when she had to lie to the people she cared about. But she had talked to Michael last night and they had agreed to keep everything for them until they had prove. They wouldn´t tell the others anything until they knew for sure that it was something to worry about. " No. I just want to see him. I´ll do that sometimes, you know".

Tess wasn´t so convinced about that. Something strange was going on and even Kyle noticed it already, a classic sign that something looked fishy. " Alrighty. Then I suggest we hurry".

" Okay", Maria turned around to her sister again. " Stay here and lock the doors". Then she and Tess stepped out of the car and walked to their different destinations.

**Inside UFO-Center**

Maria had already forgotten how much she despised the alien museum and the things displayed there. She had spent a few times here and listened to guest speaker talking about the existence of extraterrestrials, like they were called in higher circles. One or two times she had asked them how they imagined the creatures from space to look like. Everytime she got the same answer. Tall, big black eyes and green. Sometimes she had been so close to show them a real alien and how wrong they were in their assumption. But she knew that would just bring more trouble than it was worth it. Besides when she looked around the huge hall with alien displays standing at every corner, the funny looking slight grey creatures cutting a human being open, the small replica of a flying saucer hanging from the ceiling and the many walls with photos, articles and conspiracy theories, she knew it was what people wanted to see. Like Elvis was a martian and just went back to his homeplanet or Michael Jackson was on earth to make the humans willing. Maria smiled at that. She always believed the theory that the King of Pop was not from this planet and part of his anatomy was alive.

" Hey darling, did you bring me my lunch?".

Maria turned to the voice and saw Larek strolling cockily towards her. His face seemed to glow everytime they saw each other. It was almost sweet. " Sorry. Unfortunately I´m here for business".

The happy expression on his face immediately disappeared. Business always meant alien related things. " What happened?".

" Billy came to my house, yesterday. He was not in his right mind and he threatened Michael. He said some things that worried me a bit. I mean I´m not the paranoid kind of girl, but it scared me", Maria paced in front of Larek like a caged animal. She wringed her hands nervously and she babbled.

Larek didn´t understand why she was so upset. It wasn´t so strange that the ex lover was making an appearance to win his girl back again. And it wasn´t something to be worried about. Especially when the opponent was a human. " And? What has you gotten so worked up? Billy had always been a jerk, so nothing new there".

Maria stopped in her tracks to look at her friend. Her eyes held terror, terror from another life. " He´s not human, Larek. Billy was just a disguise. In reality it was always Lykus".

" You mean your fiance on Antar? What is he doing here? And most of all is he alone?", Larek had a bad feeling in his gut. If Lykus was here on earth there was a possibility that Khivar and the others were, too. This was bad, really bad. They thought they had been so careful with their plan and now it seemed like they had made something wrong at some point or worse had a leak in their circles.

Maria was glad that at least he understood her fear. His mind appeared to be working like hers. " I don´t know if he´s alone or not. I tried to get something out of his cellphone he lost during his escape. But he did something to it and I don´t have access to get into it", she pulled it out of her back pocket and gave it Larek.

He took the black thing and observed it, just to see if Lykus had manipulated the human way or if it was alien. But as far as he could see, it didn´t make the impression that something got changed on it. It was looking like a normal cellphone. " I will look into it. Maybe I can do something".

" Do that and then tell me what you figured out", Maria was a bit relieved. At least for the moment. One point on her list was gone now. But one was still there. " Did you hear something from Nolak in the last few days?".

Larek looked up from eyeing the cellphone and stared at her. Now that was a change of topic. " Yes. We phoned two days ago. Why?".

Maria tried to appear nonchalant, although she was still twisting her fingers together. All right, she was worried. But after the scene from the day before nobody could blame her for being a little cautious. " Michael was calling him this morning and nobody answered. We just wanted to be sure that nothing happened to him".

" You can stop worrying about him. He´s on a trip until Sunday. He calls it investigation. But I know that he´s in Vegas gambling and paying some floosies to please him", well it wasn´t the truth, Nolak was too stuffy for that. He would never have fun without making an appointment in his calendar. The man called learning fun, something Larek never understood. Sometimes he wished his companion would take the stick out of his ass and live a little.

Maria laughed about the picture in her head. She believed much, but Nolak having fun wasn´t it. Or maybe he changed and was now more like Larek. No, that was highly unlikely. Not even in a parallel universe. " Why didn´t you join him then? It sounds like something you would do".

Larek smiled mischievously at her and a small twinkle was appearing in his eyes. In that moment he looked exactly like a small boy standing in the middle of a candystore. " You know I can´t leave the UFO Center and I´m banned from most casinos, because I won too much money there. But it´s not my fault that the ball always hit the number I choose".

" Of course not", Maria knew that it was a lie. Like hell it wasn´t his fault, he used his powers to manipulate the game. It was something Michael would do and they both had been friends for a really long time, which meant they had the same oppinion in most things. Besides Kyle had made a suggestion that she should use her gift at some slot machine and win money for him when they made a trip to Vegas last summer. Maybe it was a guy thing or something.

Larek noticed that she probably didn´t believe him. Well she knew him better than he thought. He just nudged the ball sometimes on the right number. It wasn´t like he stole the money. Okay, so he won the money not so naturally, but he hadn´t done anything wrong, at least nothing illegal. " All right. I cheated a little", after he received a raised eyebrow he continued. " Okay I cheated. Are you satisfied?".

Maria made a gesture like she wanted to say that she hadn´t said anything. But before she could open her mouth the front door was opened with a loud noise. Instinctively she turned around with her hand drawn in front of her body. She was prepared to kill whoever tried to hurt her. Embarrassed she dropped her fighting stance as soon as she noticed that it was just a blonde young woman dressed in the teal waitress uniform from the crashdown. She was carrying a paperback in her right hand and had the stupid antennas on her head.

" Hey Brody. I´ve got your lunch. Galaxy sub with pepperjack, hold the mayo".

Larek smiled at the new arrival. Since Maria wasn´t working at the crashdown any longer, a new waitress was slowly taking over her place. She was nice and not just some ordinary girl. " Hey Courtney. You´re just on time", he felt for his wallet, but noticed that it was probably still in his office. " I just have to get money. Wait here and I´ll get it".

Maria watched after his fleeing backside. He was acting a little strange and that said much about him, because he was odd. Then she eyed the girl besides her, which Larek called Courtney. She was beautiful with her blonde hair and her blue eyes. Her legs were not so long like Marias but nice. She was a little too skinny and coul use some flesh on her bones. But otherwise not so bad to look at. " So, you are the one taking over my job now?".

Courtney turned to little princess checking her out since she came in. What was the girls problem? But suddenly she stared in her green eyes and immediately knew who was standing in front of her. " Oh my god. You´re here. You´re alive".

0

" What? What are you talking about?", shocked Maria stepped a little back from the girl. She felt trapped for a moment and she noticed fear creeping into her body. She was close to use her powers to defend herself.

Courtney realized that her sister was not regnorizing her. No wonder, she was wearing a human suite to prevent her from getting older and she couldn´t pick up her aura. " Don´t be afraid. I don´t want to harm you. I´m Corly".

For seconds Maria mulled over the name and why it was so damn familiar to her. She thought about the palace and the people she knew there. All of the sudden she remembered Corly. She had been a servant and Khivars real daughter. Grinning brightly she embraced the startled young woman " Well hell. What are you doing here?".

" I was around and thought I should pay a visit to my sister", Corly was relieved that Maria was still remembering her and was even glad to see her. She had been a little worried that the meeting would be awkward.

Maria´s expression changed instantly. She almost forgot that Marianna hadn´t had the chance to tell Corly what deep dark secret she had found out and with that the truth about her existence. That they both weren´t related. " I´m sorry. I never had the opportunity to tell you that I´m not Khivars daughter. We´re not sisters".

Corly laid a hand on her arm and smiled warmly at her. Silly girl, didn´t she know that family wasn´t always about blood relations, but people who cared about each other. " I know that. Larek already told me everything. But it doesn´t matter to me. You saved my life and I saved yours. That makes us sisters".

" Great, more siblings. Like I don´t have enough already", Maria tried to cover up her emotional state with a funny comment. She was touched that someone she barely had known was caring so deeply for her. She promised herself that she would make it up to her. From now on they would keep in touch and get to know each other better.

Corly laughed about the little joke. She had spent a few years watching over Maria and she learned a lot about her. She was a family person, the more around her the better. She seemed to complain much about no privacy, but she loved it to be surrounded by people she loved. " Do you have something planned today? We could talk and catch up. I still have to work two hours, but I would have time afterwards".

Maria would have loved to talk to Corly. But she already promised Lindsey she would spent the whole day with her. " I have to take a raincheck. My sister Lindsey has her first date tonight and I promised her that I would help her. But how about tomorrow evening? Around seven? I would even bring Michael with me".

" I understand. The first date is the most important one", Corly was slightly disappointed, but she expected something like that. " Okay tomorrow and I´ll bring my boyfriend, too".

Maria just wanted to ask who the boyfriend was and if he was good enough for her when she saw Larek hurrying back to them. " I think that is my cue to leave. Besides I have to prevent my sister from stealing my mothers car. So see you", she turned her head towards Larek and called" see ya", before walking out of the UFO-Center. When she finally arrived at the Jetta, her sister was busily talking about boys with Tess and Liz. They hadn´t even noticed that she was there until she jumped into the car and slammed the door shut. Immediately three pairs of eyes were glancing in her direction, before going back to their earlier conversation. A little annoyed Maria started the vehicle and pulled out on the street.

**The mall**

Tess and Liz were looking through the offer of clothes for young teenagers. They had purposely skipped the section with the mini dresses, although a few of them had been looking really great. But they weren´t here to buy something for themself. They had to find something for a girl that wanted to appear beautiful but still innocent enough that her parents would let her leave the house with her outfit. They already had found a few tops, skirts and pants. However they had been a reason for a small fight between the two sisters, because they couldn´t agree on something. Either Lindsey thought it would look too prissy or Maria said it would look too revealing. They were still searching for the perfect outfit and they were already here for two hours. Tess walked towards the changing rooms with her arms full of of clothes, which she threw over the door of the one she was sure Lindsey was in. Then she slumped on the comfortable seat besides Maria.

" How much longer are we supposed to be here?".

Maria shrugged clueless. She had given up looking on her watch a while ago. It seemed like they had to spent all afternoon in this building or they had to kill someone. " Hopefully not much longer or I´m gonna strangle my sister".

Tess observed Liz searching for something in the adult section. Interesting developement. Had she failed to mention a few things? She would ask her later. Right now she had to focus on her other friend. " It´s your fault, you know? A simple thumbs up would have saved you all this trouble".

" Like I don´t know that. But my mother doesn´t want something too revealing for my little sister. And strangly I´m on her side. She´s too young to get that kind of attention from men. Besides there are too many creeps out there who could take advantage of her", the worst part was that Maria probably knew most of those creeps personally. Since the appearance of Billy she saw weird people at every corner watching her. And she had the feeling that something would be going down soon. The last time she felt that, most of her second family passed on.

Tess couldn´t hold it back anymore. She knew that something was going on since the incident from last night. She didn´t care that she was pushing, but she wanted to know what was happening and if she should be careful. " What´s up? I know you told me it´s nothing. But I know something is wrong since the Billy issue".

Maria turned her head towards her friend. It was hard to keep things from Tess. She sensed a lie a mile away and she felt immediately if someone had problems or not. Odd considering Rath was the empath in the family. " I´m just more shaken up from the fight with Billy than I thought. Give me a few days and I act normal again".

" You know that you can tell me everything? Even if it should sound weird?", Tess read a little between the lines and detected a strange vibe when her roommate said the name of her ex. So it probably had something to do with Billy. He was the key to everything. Maybe she should ask Kyle a few question tonight.

Maria nodded happily that her friend didn´t push her. Then she turned to her sister, who was coming out of the changing room. Smiling brightly she twirled around like a model. The black cloth trouser was fitting at all the right places and it made Lindsey appear taller than she was. The white neckholder top however was showing a large part of her naked back and just covered the most important body parts like her breasts and her belly. " Yes to the pants. But a strong no to the top".

Lindsey already expected the reaction and rushed instantly back into the changing room and snatched a matching white cardigan out of it. Quickly she put it on and went outside again. " And now?".

" Now we can finally get something to eat", Maria jumped to her feets relieved. Finally she noticed that someone was missing from their group. " Tess. Have you seen Liz?".

Tess looked to the place she had seen the other girl a few moments ago. But now she was gone from there. At the place was now a young couple. " I just saw her searching through the dresses over there", she pointed at the spot. " But now she´s gone. Strange".

Maria instantly went to the changing room of her sister and knocked at the door. She knew that something would happen, she had felt it. But like the last time, she didn´t listen to it and now her best friend since childhood had disappeared. " Get a move on. We have to look for Liz".

" Relax. She´s probably in another shop", Lindsey pushed the door open with both arms loaded with clothes. She hung up a big pile on the rack and took the rest with her.

While she went to the cash desk and searched in her purse for her fathers credit card, Maria was scanning the crowd for the familiar brown haired head of Liz. She strained her sight to the maximum and even stood on her toes. But she couldn´t detect her friend through the many people walking around. Thankfully Lindsey had found the way back to them and they could finally go hunting for their missing groupmember. Maria grasped the hands of the other two girls, partly because she didn´t want to lose them in the crowd and partly because she wanted to be sure that her sister was safe.

" I see her! She´s standing at the entrance of Victoria´s secret", Tess pointed in the direction of the mentioned shop and pulled the others with her.

Liz blushed deeply when she saw her friends storming towards her. She hadn´t wanted them to see what she brought. It was kinda private and she didn´t feel comfortable with the knowledge that others could see what she was wearing underneath her clothes. " What is going on?".

Maria eyed her best friend, whose face had turned a nice shade of red and then the big bag in her hands. Great, she had been worried because Liz had decided to buy underwear! For a moment she was tempted to strangle the other girl for almost giving her a heart attack. " Why didn´t you wait for us? We would have went with you".

" I wanted to do it alone, because you would have just made a lot of comments which would have made me uncomfortable", Liz talked about experience about a shopping trip to Victorias secret two years ago with her best friend. She had been entertaining the whole store with her antics about her boyfriend.

Tess wondered how Liz even managed to buy something. It was one thing to be shy in front of a guy, but with friends? That was weird. She took Kyle with her lingerie shopping and she hadn´t been shy the whole time. It was something normal like buying a jacket or shoes. " Don´t be like that! What did you get? Something sexy for Maxie boy?".

Liz got even redder if it was possible, a sign that it was the exact assumption. " He´s coming tonight. We have a date and I think we´re finally ready".

" Oh my god! You want to deepen your relationship?", Maria was careful not to mention what her best friend would be doing, because she didn´t want to give her little sister any ideas. She was still too young to worry about that.

Liz put a finger in front of her mouth to shush her friends. She didn´t want the freaking mall to know what she had planned for her boyfriend. You couldn´t be too sure that not someone who knows you could just pass you and tell your parents what they heard. " Not so loud. And yes".

Tess and Maria exchanged amused glances with each other before they laid their arms around their still inexperienced friend and steered her in the direction of the nearest drugstore. You shouldn´t trust your boyfriend to take care of the protection. Be prepared was not just a motto for the boyscouts. Lindsey followed them with a big smile gracing her face.

**Valenti Residence**

Michael, Kyle and Jim were sitting on the couch in the living room and watched football. Three bowls of chips were standing on the table besides three small bottles of snapple. They had been having much fun fishing that morning. They talked about important things and Jim tried to get a little more out of his future son in law. Although the mood had been relaxed, Michael had been guarded about a few topics and expressed himself just vague. But Kyle told him that the poor boy had lost his parents when he was nine and his grandfather had been mostly absent in his youth. That cleared the veil a little and made him understand him more. He swore that he would make Michael feel more at home with them.

" What do you think the girls are talking about right now?", Kyle was sick of the silence. Besides he had just spent hours with just men, he needed a little loving from his sweety. But she said she was busy with applying make up to Lindseys face. Like his sister needed all this crap to look beautiful.

Michael shrugged instinctively. He was too busy with thinking about the new developement in their lifes to think about such a trivial things " They´re probably giving your sister good tips about handling a man".

Jim hoped it was like that upstairs. He was still sulking quietly about the fact that his youngest daughter was dating boys now. It was all the fault of his wife, she had been playing unfair with him. Threatening with sex withdrawal. When he told that this morning, Kyle handed Sean ten dollars. Until now he didn´t know why. " I wish they would scare her so much that she would wait with the dating until she´s fourty".

" Now Jim, that wasn´t nice. It´s just a date with movie theater and maybe an ice afterwards. How much can happen there?", Amy put three plates of hot dogs on the table. How long did her husband want to bitch about that? She was just going out with a young boy, here in Roswell, where most of the people knew Lindsey. They would probably get the gist of the date in detail from some citizen by morning.

Jim glared at his wife. Did she just ask that? Didn´t she listen when he told her about his work? How many girls reported a rape after a wild party? Or had been attacked from their dates? He saw too much already and he didn´t want someday to come to a crime scene and see one of his daughters lying on the street or in an alley, strangled, raped or slashed. " Aren´t you even slightly worried about the safety of your daughter? The boy could be a junkie, a dealer or even a hitman!".

Amy had to quell her urge to laugh. Her husband was on the brink to get loco or his job finally costed him his sanity. " The boy is fiveteen for heaven´s sake".

" And? The age doesn´t matter nowadays", Jim knew that he couldn´t win this fight. For all reason he would list, his wife would find a perfect comeback. They could play this game for eternity and they wouldn´t get far. But was it so bad that he cared about the health of his family?

Before Amy could cave into the compulsion to castrate her husband, the doorbell rang. Immediately they could hear loud voices from upstairs and Maria calling that they would be coming down in a few seconds, while Kyle walked to the door and opened it.

" We don´t buy anything and we´re not interested in the watchtower".

The boy in front of him stared at him with wide eyes. His left hand, which was occupied with nice flowers, shook like crazy. " My name is Lindsey and I´m here to pick up Nicholas".

Kyle eyed him from head to toe. From his ironed black jeans to his dark blue shirt and to the dark blonde hairs. Instantly he knew that they didn´t have to worry about anything with the dud here. Could he look more dorkier? He made the appearance like he couldn´t count to three. " Yeah, yeah. Get in, we´re all already waiting for you".

" Kyle", Amy slapped the shoulder of her son. How dare he trying to intimidate this poor boy. " Be nice".

But unfortunately for Lindseys date the other two men arose from the couch and joined the little get together at the door. Now all three males were standing in front of him like a solid wall and glowered.

Nicholas gulped nervously and tried to hide his fear from the threatening men. They made him feel like he was the lamb in a cage full of lions. He was sure that every minute one of them would leave his place in the line and attack him. Especially the muscly one with the crazy hair. He was making the impression like he wanted to read something in his expression. Suddenly relieved flooded his body when he saw Lindsey walking down the steps. Three older girls were following her with big smiles gracing their faces.

" I hope my family didn´t try to scare you",

Nicholas grinned at her while he handed her the flowers he picked on his way here. " Not at all", he saw in the corner of his eyes that the smaller man raised his eyebrow. But he only concentrated on the girl in front of him. Lindsey was looking pretty tonight. Her hair was put up with a few curly strands framing her face, which was held in light make up. Just enough to emphasize her natural beauty. " You look beautiful".

The girls in the background gushed over the sweet boy while the men snorted scornful. It was just a pick up line to let the girl feel safe before trying to get her into their beds. Hopefully this Nicholas guy would keep his hands to himself or he could say goodbye to them.

" You look not so bad yourself", Lindsey played nervously with the hem of her jacket. She had heard so much stories about dates gone wrong and how she could avoid an awkward silence, that she almost forgot to put her shoes on. She just wanted out of this house and enjoy her first date.

Maria was delighted for her sister and hoped that she would spent a fantastic evening with a nice guy. But something was bothering her with Lindseys companion. Something that was making her really uncomfortable. Something that let ring all her alarm bells loudly. Then he turned his face and looked directly at her. She knew those eyes, they were familiar to her somehow and she had glanced at them many times before. Suddenly it dawned on her where she knew those eyes. The moment her face cleared she noticed that he realized that he was identified. But before she could open her mouth to warn her sister everything around her started to get black.

TBC


	50. Chapter 50

**Chapter 49b Blood is thicker than water**

Maria opened her eyes and looked around. For a second she was confused where she was and needed a little time for her brain to catch up to her sight. Still part of her wondered why she was lying on the couch in the living room and why her family was staring worriedly at her. She felt a hand brushing her hair away from her face and she turned in the direction of it. Relieved she noted that it was just Michael, who was smiling at her.

" How are you?".

Maria stared at him like she would see him for the first time. Something strange had happened, because she couldn´t remember anything after she helped her sister. What the hell was going on? " I´m pretty confused right now. But other than that alright. I think".

Kyle stepped forward and squeezed his sisters hand. He had been so glad when she had opened her eyes. " You gave us quite a scare when you fainted. What happened?

" I don´t know. The last thing I remember is walking down the steps with Lindsey and Tess. I was so happy to be there for her first date", at the mention of date Marias face cleared immediately. Now she remembered again what happened. She had glanced in the eyes of the boy and identified her halfbrother Nicolai. He must have done something to let her faint, because he wanted to avoid a scene. " Where is Lindsey?".

Amy stepped closer to her daughter and felt her forehead. Her first thought had been that Maria had caught the flu or a cold. But she had no fever and no other indication that she was ill. Yet she was mother and worried about her children. " Are you not feeling well? Maybe I should call Dr. Perkowitz. He should check you out".

Maria slapped the hand of her mother away and tried to stand up from the couch. Unfortunately she was too quick and her sight started to spin around her. She felt like she would be on the Titanic, after it crashed against the iceberg. " Don´t call him. I just need a few moments and I´m as good as new", she put her head between her legs and breathed a few times deeply in and out. After she was sure that she left the merry-go-round, she looked up at her family. Halfway she noticed the time on the videorecorder and realized that she had been out for two hours. Worriedly she faced Michael. " Can you do me a favor and get my jacket?I think fresh air will help me right now".

" Okay. If you think you´re up to it", he kissed her forehead before jumping to his feet and disappearing from her sight.

Tess sat down on the vacated spot her brother had been occupying moments ago and began stroking her best friends back. " Are you sure it´s good that you go outside? I mean wouldn´t it be better if you would rest?".

Maria rubbed her face nervously. She was touched about the concern her family was showing towards her. But she couldn´t let her sister alone with this bastard. She was scared what he already could have done to her in the hours she had been out of it. " I will feel better when I take a breath of fresh air".

" Maybe you all stop harassing her and leave her alone", Jim interfered to save his daughter from the next twenty questions. If she said that she was feeling better than it was so. Period. She was old enough to know her body.

Maria turned to her father with gratitude and smiled at him. There was a reason why she loved him so much. No matter how many times he tried to forbid her some things or even screamed at her, when it came to the point he was always staying behind her and covering her back. " Thanks Dad".

Just as her father wanted to reply something Michael stepped back into the living room with a black leather jacket on his arm and wearing his own black leather jacket. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the looks he was receiving from everyone. " Did I miss something or why are you all staring at me?".

" They are just surprised how good you look in leather", Maria slowly rose from the couch and went to her boyfriend to get her jacket. Then she faced her family and winked. " Later".

Michael just had enough time to lift his hand before his girlfriend dragged him out of the house. He was pretty confused about her odd behaviour. Something had happened to her and it worried him that she wasn´t telling him what it was. " What is going on here?".

Maria didn´t have the patience nor the time to explain everything to him. She wanted to be gone two hours ago. Too bad that Larek hadn´t gave her the gift to space shift. That would have saved her time. " Nothing. I just need your car".

" For what? And would you quit dragging me", Michael released the hold on his arms and stopped in his tracks. If she wanted something from him, she had to tell him the truth. Either that or she could walk.

Maria was on the brink to scream the whole town down. Why couldn´t her friends or her family trust her without knowing everything? Why was it so hard for them to just do what she asked them to? She wasn´t some nutcase or so. " Please. I´ll tell you the reason when we´re in the car and on the way to the movie theatre. But we don´t have time".

Michael saw something in her eyes that scared him. Fear was clouding them mixed with a little bit of worry and panic. He never witnessed that with her. She wasn´t just some ordinary girl and she didn´t get afraid so easily. It must be something huge when she reacted that way. " All right. Get in".

" Thanks", Maria was really greatful that he hadn´t made a fuss like usual. She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a loud kiss on the lips. Now she finally knew why she loved him so much. Startled she backed away from her boyfriend and her eyes were huge in her face. Where had that thought come from? Love? Wasn´t it a little bit to early for that? They knew each other just for three months and were only dating for one. Well not counting their past lifes.

Michael didn´t even realized the shocked state his girlfriend was in. He had been too busy with the flashes he had seen in her mind. Memories from her life as Marianna. There had been an older boy with grey piercing eyes, which were always emitting such a coldness that it was scary. His gaze spoke of deep ruted hate and something that wasn´t so easily to decipher. If Michael should place a bet he would say it was close to longing. But that wasn´t possible. You can´t hate something that you long for and you can´t long for something that you hate. Or was he wrong in his assumption and the problem was deeper than it appeared on the first look? Who was this guy at all? And why did he pop in Marias mind just now? More confused than ever he shook his head and opened his car. He wouldn´t get his answers by standing in the cold. When he sat behind his wheel he finally noticed that he was the only one inside the vehicle. " Come on Maria. Let´s go".

Maria jumped slightly when she was thrown out of her thoughts. Surprised she saw that Michael was already sitting in the car and stared at her impatiencly. Right. She didn´t have time for thinking about things that were out of her understanding. Some things just happened and nobody would ever know the reason why. And love was definitely high on that list. Hurriedly she jumped into the Dodge and fastened her seatbelt while her boyfriend started the car and pulled out on the street.

" Can I finally know the reason for your weird behaviour tonight?", Michael knew that he had no patience. A trait that had brought him enough trouble already. But if Maria was worried than he worried and he hated that feeling.

Maria considered how she could say it to him without freaking him out. It had already been strange that her ex fiance from her past life had been visiting her, but when she would tell him that her half brother was taking out her little sister at this exact moment, he would surely think she had lost her mind. " Nicholas is not who he appears to be". Now she had said it, even if she hadn´t wanted to just blurt it out like that.

Michael averted his gaze from the street in front of him and turned to his passenger besides him. All right, he knew that his girlfriend wasn´t the most sane person on this planet and maybe he liked it that she wasn´t like any other girls. But that was too bizarre, even for him. " Okay. Who is he then?".

" Can you remember Davico, the guy dating Vilandra?", Maria had seen his expression before he had turned back to look out the window and she was aware that he thought she was loco. Damn, she wasn´t crazy.

Michael mulled over the name, it was familiar somehow and he had heard it already. Suddenly his mind wandered to a scene from Rath´s life.

**Flash **

_Rath was standing near the dancefloor and watched Larek trampling on Mariannas feet. She _

_was smiling at her partner and his attempt to move his feet to the rythym. For the first time he _

_wasn´t jealous about the fact that his best friend was with his girl. Grinning he turned to _

_Vilandra, who was over and over again looking at the entrance of the castle. " So if Mariannas _

_is already occupied, how about you dance with me?"._

" _Sorry, but I can´t. Davico just arrived. I´ll see you later", Vilandra took off like the devil _

_himself was after her. _

Within seconds the scene changed and he was standing in the hall of the palace.

**Flash **

_Rath was confronting Marianna about her intention to make a hasty retreat. He was so angry _

_that he couldn´t see straight. Then Vilandra stretched her head out of her bedroom door and _

_stared at him._

"_Rath don´t do it. Please. It´s not her fault. If you want someone to blame then blame me"._

_He glanced at Vilandra like she lost her mind__. What was she talking about? " Huh?"._

" _I invited the enemy into the castle. I didn´t know it at the time, but I was involved with _

_Mariannas brother. And I think he used me for information", __Vilandra confessed remorseful._

_He shook his head. He had to misheard himself. Because it sounded like Vilandra was the one _

_who brought all this death and destruction. " Excuse me? Did I hear correctly? You had a thing _

_with the enemy?"._

_In that moment_ _Marianna interfered in the argument." But she had no idea that he was the _

_enemy then"._

" _You knew about that!"._

**End Flash**

After that he came back from his visit to his past and concentrated again on the street. Now he knew why Maria had been so worried. " Are you trying to tell me your evil brother is here and dating your sister?".

Maria had to refrain from laughing out loud, although the situation wasn´t so funny. But what he just said sounded a little funky. Like they would come from a hick town and breed in. Ewwww. " Firstly, don´t mention this again, it sounds disgusting and secondly he´s the halfbrother of Marianna, which means we´re not really related to each other, at least theoretically. And thirdly, that is exactly what I tried to tell you".

" Oh shit!", Michael stepped harder on the gas pedal and ignored the speed limit. Well, he was on familiar terms with the sheriff and maybe he would have mercy when he heard the reason for the speed. Besides he had Maria sitting besides him and she would use her charme to prevent him from getting a ticket.

Maria held onto the dashboard to keep herself from getting squashed through her seatbelt. Her boyfriend had come obviously to the same conclussion she had earlier. The situation went from bad to worse. But one good thing had this whole mess. They finally knew that Lykus wasn´t alone on this planet and they had targeted her family. Those bastards would pay if Lindsey would just be missing a tiny hair. No one would be getting away with hurting the people she loved. Not as long as she was still breathing. She didn´t want to lose everyone around her again, because this time she would probably perish from the pain. It had been already too painful the first time, but the second time would be deadly.

Michael felt a sudden wave of panic mixed with fear wash over him and he almost lost control over the car. For a moment they swerved on the street before he pulled the steering wheel hard around and until the dodge was driving a straight line again. Scared he touched his chest right over his heart. He wanted to make sure that it stayed in his ribcage and didn´t come up with the idea to escape from his body. Holy shit, he almost wet his pants. He loved the adventure and the rush of adrenaline that came with it. But this had been a tad bit too much for him. He already saw his whole life passing in front of his minds eye and it hadn´t been exactly very satisfying. " Woah. That was close".

" What was that actually? I thought you could drive a car", Maria had seen herself already lying on the sidewalk with the broken dodge besides her. She almost had lost the milkshake and the cheeseburger she had been having at the mall.

Michael glared at her shortly, because he didn´t want to let the street out of his sight for too long. Now she started to mock him. He could drive a car. But not when he got surprised from the frightened feelings of his girlfriend. If anything she should apologize for startling him. " Hey. It´s your fault that I lost control. If you would keep your feelings to yourself and not broadcast them to the damn whole world, this wouldn´t have had happened".

Maria was speechless for a nanosecond. All right, she had been too worried to about her sister to make sure that she held her feelings in check. She forgot that he was an empath and felt what she felt. But that didn´t give him the right to snap at her like that. " I´m sorry that I´m worried about my family. Next time I´ll remember to leave my feelings at home".

" Oh no, don´t you start with me now", Michael pointed with his forefinger at her. He wanted to prevent them from fighting with each other. Although entertaining, it wouldn´t bring them any further. Besides they hadn´t the time for it, because they had a serious situation at hand.

Maria was really tempted to suck his finger in that moment. She loved it when he began to get mad and it made her extremely hot. Just in time she could herself hold back to jump on his lap and kiss him senseless. She didn´t care that they were on the way to help her sister or that Michael was driving. Suddenly she noticed a young couple strolling on the sidewalk in front of them. " Stop the car".

Michael, thankfully also aware of the two people walking hand in hand though the dark streets of Roswell, stepped immediately on the brake and parked his dodge at the curb. " What do you want to do now?".

" We follow them around. If Nicolai just as much as put a finger on her, I will f squish his damn skull", and Maria truly meant it. He just had to make a wrong move and she wouldn´t hesistate to take his ugly face and perform a makeover. This time she wouldn´t make the same mistake like she did on Antar and underestimate him again. Slowly she got out of the car and tried to close the door as quietly as she could.

Michael did the same and then went to his girlfriend. He was glad that they were on the same side, because quite frankly she was starting to scare him. Well, he wouldn´t act any different if he was sure that a bad guy was targeting his family, but it was different with him. At least he was looking like he could take on some baddie, whereas Maria was looking like she couldn´t hurt a fly, let alone a grown man. Besides she was his girl and he didn´t want anything to happen to her. " Are you absolutely sure that it´s him? Not that we beat on the wrong guy"

Maria looked up at her boyfriend. She was a little hurt that he was doubting her and that just in this moment. When did he start not trusting her and her instinct? " I´m certain. Trust me on this".

" All right. Then get a move on or we´re gonna lose them", Michael took Marias hand and dragged her quietly with him. They both had to be sneaky and fast or they would lose their target. He was glad that he remembered his life as a soldier, because a few things were quite useful in this life. Not that he had practise tailing someone or anything.

Maria almost tripped over her feet during the forceful pull of her boyfriend, but thankfully she could catch herself in the nick of time and prevent falling down and blowing their cover in the process. After that they slowly sneaked along the little shops lining the streets one after the other. While Michael concentrated on following the young couple and keeping enough space between them so that they didn´t notice their shadows, Maria tried to set up her siblings bond with her sister, in order to feel it immediately if something should go wrong. However the only thing she could sense at the moment was the growing nervousness and the excitement. Shocked she picked up the thought of Lindsey kissing the scumbag. Disgusted she tried to get her gag reflex down and not lose her meal for the second time that night. " Are you still seeing them?".

Michael spied around the corner and saw the couple disappearing through a large bush. He was glad that he was an alien, because their sight was the same no matter day or night. And although it was full moon, the streets were still kind dark at this time. " They just went through some sorta bush".

" What? Let me see", Maria pushed her boyfriend aside and took his place at the corner. Carefully she stretched her head out and looked at the mentioned place. Michael had been telling the truth. It was a bush. But it wasn´t that thickly or even deep, it was just something like a secret opening for a special spot here in Roswell, which just a few teenagers were aware of. Maria herself had visited this place once with Doug Sohn and she got her first kiss there. " Oh shit, it´s the entrance to the garden of love".

Michael scratched his eyebrow confused. Okay, that was it, Maria had probably hit her head when she fainted, because what she was saying wasn´t making any sense. Not to him at least. Maybe they should go home and she should lie down until she felt better. " What are you talking about?".

Maria didn´t answer his question. Instead she gripped the front of his leather jacket and pulled him after her. That bastard had something planned, something that didn´t involve being seen from anybody. Bloody hell, either he wanted to do her or he wanted to kill her, neither of this options were good and she had to prevent both from happening. Briskly she went to the spot where the thorns wouldn´t hurt so much. After she made sure that nobody was watching them and that nobody was near who could see them she pushed her way through the thicket. She could hear Michael faintly cursing her for dragging him into a damn pricky shrub, maybe blemish his beautiful face and probably ruining his expensive jacket in the process. Maria had to stiffle the laughter which was threatening to bubble up in her. She asked herself why she took him with her actually. He was worse bitching than a girl. But before she could tell him to shut his mouth or they would surely get detected, they came to the end of the bush. Immediately Maria pushed herself a few steps back when she noticed that her sister and Nicolai were standing almost near them. Unfortunately she hadn´t said anything to her companion, which resulted in two colliding bodies, more cursing and a pretty loud rustle. Thankfully the young couple seemed to not have noticed anything unusual and carried on with their conversation. Michael meanwhile recovered from pulling thorns from his butt cheeks and glared at his girlfriend, who hadn´t one scratch on her body, because she was so small and obviously knew her surroundings.

" You could have warned me before you went into reverse. My ass must be looking like a sieve right now, thanks to you", he whispered angrily in her ear. She should make herself ready for a beating when they came home, she deserved it after this evening.

Maria turned her head around and masked her amusement about his discomfort. He was behaving like a baby. The thorns weren´t exactly big and didn´t hurt that much. She had suffered severe wounds already and she did it with less whining. " You could have watched where you´re going. Besides we´re tailing someone. I wanted to make as little noise as possible".

Michael still rubbed his sore butt. It didn´t hurt that much, but it was about the principle here and the fact that he couldn´t let her win this round. She won too much already and he hated it. " Great. Now it´s my fault. Why do you always blame me for everything that is going wrong?".

" Because you´re my boyfriend and it´s usually your fault, honey", Maria bent closer to him and gave him a kiss. Maybe that would finally shut him up for a moment and lead him away from the bitching. When she pulled away from him she was pleased to see his dazed expression staring back at her. " Now be quiet and watch".

Michael smiled satisfied, even though he knew that he lost this round again. But after this kiss it didn´t faze him nor did he notice the obvious dig at him. Highly motivated he placed himself besides Maria and observed the scene. The first thing he noticed was two stone statues resembling a manticore, a mythical creature from the greek mystic. It had the face of a human, the body of a lion and the tail of a scorpion. Both were standing in the middle of what appeared to be an old cemetery, at least according to the little heaps of stones evenly spread on the weed overgrown ground. " Where are we?".

Maria knew why he was asking her that. The first time she put a foot in there, she felt like a character from the movie " Pet Cemetary". She had felt really uncomfortable and had been scared. The had feeling even intensified when she accidently tripped over a heap of stones and destroyed it. Not even Doug had managed to calm her and after they shared their first kiss they both had disappeared immediately. " This had been a Indian cemetery before the white man came, banished them from town and forced them to live in reservation out in the desert. They say an old medicine man cursed the property and after that everybody who dared to try to built something on this land had either given up or had been having an accident. Since the sixties nobody had set a foot in there. Well, except for just a few teenagers looking for secluded spot to to make out".

" That is so cool", Michael had a secret passion. He loved history and he read much about the native americans and the stories about them. It was instructive and fascinating at the same time. It all had started when he saw " the last of the mohicans". After the movie he read everything he could about the indians and even made an attempt to become one of them. Needless to say he didn´t make it, which was still paining him a little.

Maria ignored her boyfriend and concentrated again on her sister, who had started giggling when Nicolai had taken her hand. She didn´t hear what they were saying, but she tried to read the body language. Lindsey was constantly playing with her hair or her jacket, nothing unsual. After all she had been the same at her first date. But Nicolais stance was slightly worrying her. He seemed to be waiting to attack, like a tiger lying in hiding until its victim was close enough to tackle it. Immediately all her instincts were coming online and were making her ready to help her sister as soon as it would look like she needed it.

Michael noticed the fighting stance the moment Maria tensed up. He followed her sight and he saw the same thing she witness seconds earlier. Nicolai had something planned and it had nothing to do with seducing a highschool girl. Maybe it had to do with the evil vibe hanging in the air or the electricity tickling their skins. " Do you feel that?".

" Yeah. Strange", Maria didn´t avert her eyes from the scene in front of her. She knew that something would be going down soon and she didn´t even know what it was. For a second she winced when she saw Nicolai pulling her sister closer to himself and kissing her.

Michael was on the brink to step between the two and get Lindsey away from the crazy alien. But he knew that wouldn´t be smart to do that. They weren´t even sure if it was really Nicolai. He could still be a normal teenager trying to score with a girl. They couldn´t interfere as long as nothing dangerous would happen.

But suddenly a moan was heard and it wasn´t the – oh my god, what a great kisser – kind. It sounded like the person was in pain. Simultaneously Maria and Michael stormed from their hiding place and used their powers to push Nicolai away from Lindsey, who seemed to be drained from whatever was done to her and crashed on the ground with a loud thud. Lucky her, because after she fainted the show really hit a new level.

" Who do we have here? My backstabbing sister and her weak lover", Nicolai had shaken off the blast hitting him and was now standing in front of his attackers. The smile on his face wasn´t friendly or even welcoming. But it was a sign that he wasn´t so surprised like he should.

Maria stepped closer to his small form and circled around him. She had to see everything or she wouldn´t believe it. Grinning broadly she stopped before him. " What happened to you? Did you hit a time machine and went in the past or did your human suit shrink?".

Michael laughed really loud about the dig at Nicolais height, who was glancing vitriolic at him for mocking him so openly. " Hey don´t glare at me. I found the line funny".

" Enjoy the laughter, because it will be your last", Nicolai threw a green blast in his direction at the same time Maria stretched her hand out and shoot a red blast of her own. With a ear splitting bang the blast crashed against each other and dissolved in midair.

" Is that all you have to offer? We should go and come back when you reach our level", Maria was in the process to turn around and walk away from her half-brother. She knew that he had been having one flaw and that was his ego. Hopefully it still was like that.

Nicolai realized what game she wanted to play with him. But he learned his lesson a long time ago, actually the day he and his mates won the war against her and her weak friends. He wouldn´t do the same mistakes again and fall in Marias traps. She wanted to make him mad? Then she had to come up with something better. Bored he eyed his fingernails before faced Maria. " Fine. Do whatever you want", he smiled over her shoulder at something. " But you have to go past my friends first".

Just as Maria wanted to turn to see if her half brother was bluffing, a strong arm wrapped around her throat. Starlted she tried to get them off of her and pulled at the grip. But unfortunatly her attacker had her in a tight hold and just squeezed stronger the more she tried to fight against it. Slowly she noticed her heart pounding in her chest and panic crawling up in her body. Desperate she glanced besides her to see why Michael didn´t help her. Surprised she saw some tall guy with dark hair bending over him with a knee on his back and pushing his face in the dirt under him. Great she couldn´t count on her boyfriend coming to her rescue. Well, you could only trust yourself in situations like this. Quick she tried to think about using her powers, but she didn´t know how, because the lack of air was making her mind fuzzy. Suddenly a scene from a movie popped in her head and with the last remaining strenght in her body she pushed the arm higher, put her mouth lower and bit forcefully into the skin. Immediately a cry of pain was heard and the grip around her throat went away. Relieved she bent down to breath normal again and get her heartbeat under control.

" Bitch. You almost bit my whole arm off".

Maria jolted up when she heard the familiar voice behind her. Angrily she twirled around and stood face to face with Lykus. Why was she so shocked to see him here with Nicolai? She should have expected it. " Be glad it´s just your arm and not something important. Ups sorry. You can´t bite something off that is not there".

Lykus got really mad when a snigger came from the man kissing the ground besides him. Furious he lifted his arm fastly and wrench it to the side. Maria felt a pain like a truck would hit her and flew through the air. After a long flight she landed with a hurtful thud on one of the statue with her back. For a moment she lost her breath again and she had problems keeping her consciences. Over and over again it got black in front of her eyes and she had to fight against the threatening darkness. But suddenly she heard something that brought her back right away. A growl from her lover. With a quiet moan, much effort and a great part of ignoring her aching bones, she slide down from the manticore and put her unsteady feet on the ground. It was probably more adrenaline pumping through her veins that was keeping her standing, because her legs were feeling like gum. But she didn´t care about that, it was just important that she was standing at all. Rage was errupting from somewhere deep inside her at the sight that greeted her. The strange guy and Nicolai were holding Michaels arms while Lykus was cutting long wounds on his face.

" That is for taking my girl away from me again".

Michael fought the arms keeping him prisoner and struggled against his restrains. This pussy´s had to take on him with three of them. That was pathetic and he had to quell the urge to laugh in their faces. " I didn´t take away anything. You just weren´t man enough to hold a girl like Maria. She needs a real man and not just some wannabe like you"

Lykus reach back with his fist and then punch Michael with it pretty hard until his lip was bloody. " I wouldn´t open my big mouth if I would be you".

Michael spit his blood in the face of his opponent. He wasn´t against losing a little blood, it was rather a nice catalyst for a familiar person to come out to play. And he learned to control the other side of him quite well in the last few weeks. " Now that wasn´t very nice. Don´t you know that it´s not wise to wake a sleeping dog if your scared of it?"

" Are you trying to scare me, or what?", Lykus bent closer to him until they were practically nose to nose. " Because frankly, it doesn´t work".

Suddenly the knife in his hand was blasted out of it and something hard hit his back. Startled he turned around and looked at the statue where Maria was still lying lifeless on. Confused he faced his two fellows to check if they saw something unusual. But unfortunately they just stared surprised at him. It seemed like they also didn´t know from where the blast had been coming from.

" What is going on? You already lost interest in torturing me?", Michael was pretty bewildered at the moment. Why had Lykus just stopped all of the sudden? Why had the grip of the two lads behind him lessened? And who had shot the blast?

Before anyone could answer the questions, Lykus fell on his kness with a loud scream at the same Nicolai and his lackey were ripped away from Michael, who felt immediately a pair of arms wrapping around his middle and supporting his body. A little scared he looked around to see the owner of the arms, but strangly nobody was standing near him. Expect for the three sissy boys lying on the ground and trying to protect them from invisible blows, he was alone. Holy Shit, the lost souls of the indians buried here were coming out of their graves and wanted to get him. Just as he was in the process to free himself from the grip around him and get the hell out of here, something like a veil was lifting from his eyes.

" Are you alright?".

Michael turned his head to his right and looked in the worried green eyes of his girlfriend. When did she appear? And why was she holding him upright? " Whoa. Didn´t you just lie on the stone statue a moment ago?".

Maria chuckled slightly and winced at the movement. During her collision she must have hurt something on the inside, because everytime she breathed or just moved in general pain was exploding in her body. " No. That was just what your sister wanted those idiots to believe", she pointed at them.

Michael was shocked for a second. Bloody hell, when did all these people arrive here? Baffled he watched Kyle beating the shit out of Lykus with a baseball bat, Tess kneeling besides Lindsey and checking her, Larek and some blonde babe punching the remaining two gals with their fists. " Did I miss something here?".

" Nothing important", Maria eyed the scratches on his cheeks and the bloody lip. The corner of his mouth turned a nice shade of blue and it would probably hurt like a bitch in the morning. Tenderly she stroked over the small wounds and instantly they disappeared. Thankfully that they hadn´t been too deep or else she would have needed more energy.

Kyle finally stopped his punch practise and went to the side of his sister and his friend. " What has gotten into you? Stepping into a dangerous situation without back up! Be glad that I had a bad feeling when I heard the Dodge driving away or you could have been really hurt or worse!".

Michael just rolled his eyes at his roommate. Nothing bad had happened. Well except for a few blows to his ego and some small injuries. " You sound like your father".

" And? He´s not so wrong about certain things", Kyle glanced at the spot where Tess was speaking with a now awake Lindsey. Too bad that her date hadn´t gone like she planned and unfortunately for her, she would never have the chance to go on another date again when his father knew about this incident.

Maria followed her brothers sight and the same thought was shooting through her mind. She was already trying to formulate a plausible lie they could sell their parents, because they couldn´t just tell them the truth. " Let´s not overreact. Nobody got hurt and nobody had seen anything happening".

Tess decided in this moment to place herself besides her boyfriend and laid her head on his shoulder while she let her eyes wander around her friends faces. " Is everyone okay?".

" Yeah", Maria didn´t mention the pulsating feeling at her side. She didn´t want to worry anybody. Besides she had good healing powers and everything should be gone by tomorrow. " How is Lindsey?".

Tess looked back at the young girl sitting on the ground with her knees pulled tightly at her body. She had been through the most hurtful torture someone could inflict on a person. A mind rape could be as bad as a normal rape. Just that you are really helpless to do anything against it, especially when the person didn´t even know what was going on. " Better. I mended some bursted vessels in her brain, because when Nicolai invaded her memories he was acting like a bull in a china shop. Thankfully I could erase most of the things happening tonight".

Maria immediately knew what happened and tears were glistening in her eyes. Without saying anything she released Michael and walked over to her sister. Carefully because of her injury, she sat down next to her. Straightaway Lindsey snuggled her head on her sisters shoulder while Maria laid an arm around her and slowly rocked her. Both girls were crying quietly.

" Yo, what did we miss?", Larek and Corly were finished with letting their frustration out and finally send the their punching bags away with a warning to their king.

Michael watched his former best friend keeping the blonde tightly at his side and he wondered if they both had something going on. The girl was strangly familiar to him, but he couldn´t place her. Hopefully it wasn´t some chick he nailed at one time and never saw again after that. " Not much. Unlike me. What are you doing here? And who´s she?".

Larek smiled boyish and his eyes were twinkling happily. " That my friend is Courtney and she is my girlfriend. Her name on Antar was Corly and she was the one saving Mariannas life", he drew his attention to Maria and her sister for a moment. They both had been lucky tonight that not more happened. " As for what we are doing here, we got the batsignal, jumped immediately in our batmobil and drove here".

" Who gave you a signal?", Michael knew that it hadn´t been Maria nor him. He turned to Tess and Kyle. Maybe they had called for back up. But how did they know something was wrong?

Just as the thought was finished a shadow rose from the floor and stood up to its full height. When the moon shone on the face everybody looked at Lykus. Grinning innocently he glanced at the shocked expressions. " I warned them actually".

Larek sensed that a lot of question would be coming soon and he knew that there were a few things he need to explain to his friends. A few things that Nolak thought should wait until their charges were ready for them. But it was late and it had been an eventful evening. " I know that you have many questions and believe me, I will anwer them all. But not now. We can meet tomorrow at lunchtime in UFO-Center. There I will explain everything".

" Am I too late? Did I miss the action?", everybody startled when Hanson stormed through the bush, his gun drawn in front of his body and his face twisted into an angry mask. He looked around and noticed his audience staring at him funny. Huffing he faced Larek. " Damnit. Why didn´t you wait for me? I wanted to have some fun, too".

Michael´s jaw almost hit the ground. " Yeah. You have to explain a lot".

TBC


	51. Chapter 51

**Chapter 49c New problems on the horizont**

Maria was still sitting on the ground and tried to calm down her little sister, who had stopped crying a few minutes ago and was now strangly quiet, like she had fallen asleep. That wouldn´t be such a wonder after the night she had behind her. She could be glad that she was alive, because a mind rape could destroy your brain completely and all that would be left was a drooling heap of something. Maria had seen one time what Nicolai was capable of and it hadn´t been a nice sight. He enjoyed killing people and loved it to hear them beg for their lifes. She couldn´t understand how he got that way, because she was the exact opposite from him and that even though she grew up in the same invironment as him.

" Can we go home? I don´t want to be here anymore".

Maria jumped slightly when she heard the question. She had been too deep in her thoughts and hadn´t noticed that her sister wasn´t sleeping, but rather looking at her. " Of course we can go home. Just let me check something first", slowly she released Lindsey and arose in a standing position. Then she walked to the others, who seemed to be ready to go, too.

" Is she alright?", Larek asked as soon as Maria was besides him. He worried about both girls, because one wouldn´t know how close she had been to dying and the other would berate herself for not protecting her sister.

Maria nodded weakly while she felt the arms of Michael encircle her body. He was tenderly stroking her back under her shirt and she detected that it calmed her slightly. " I just came over, because I wanted to know if I should tell my father something about Nicolai in case he will come again or if I should keep my mouth shut".

In that moment Hanson walked back to the group of people. Grinning brightly he put his cellphone back into his pants. " Everything set. The sheriff will be at the hospital in ten minutes".

" What? What is going on? And what are you doing here?", Maria was feeling out of the loop at the moment and she didn´t like it. This evening was getting from bad to worse and she just wanted to crawl in her bed and never wake up again.

Hanson almost forgot that Maria had been too busy with her sister that she hadn´t witnessed his perfect appearing, hence she must be surprised to see him. " I´ll tell you later. But now we have to go to the hospital".

Maria turned to the faces around her to see if they knew what was happening here. Obviously she was the only one not in the knowing. Did she fall asleep and hadn´t noticed it? Or did time stop just for her and everyone had been moving on? " What is going on and I won´t ask again. I want answers and I will beat them out of everybody if I have to".

" We just made up a story for your parents. We told your father that Nicholas had been a little too wild and we heard your sister and well, there was a tiny fight. Hanson heard the ruckus and he chased Nicholas away", Michael knew that it was healthier to let her into the plan. She didn´t say things she didn´t mean. He still had a few scratched on his back from her from when he refused to tell her what he and her brother had been talking on their fishing trip.

Maria thought about the gasket her father would blow. He had been against the idea of sending his youngest daughter on a date with a possible criminal from the beginning and now he would know he was right about his objections. Lindsey would be allowed to go out on a date when she was fifty or older. " That´s really good. Could be coming from me".

Corly saw in Marias face and registere the painful expression there. Worriedly she stepped closer to the other girl and eyed her closer. " You don´t look so good. Are you not feeling well?".

" It´s nothing. It will probably be gone by tomorrow", Maria hissed slightly and moved to the side when Michael found the spot who hurt the most. He just grazed the place and she already thought she had to jump out of her skin.

Michael noticed the reaction and wondered what she had been hiding from him. Curiously he touched the point again and suddenly his fingers felt something wet. Shocked he pulled his hand back and saw it smeared with blood. " Oh shit. Take your jacket off".

Maria glared at him, not only did he continue poking her injury and cause her more pain than she already had, but now he wanted her to make a strip in front of others. Not gonna happen. " We don´t have time for that. We have to get Lindsey to the hospital. My father will be mad when we´re not there".

" I don´t care about that. Take off your jacket or I will do it", Michael wasn´t kidding and everybody knew it. Even Kyle and Tess felt his anger, although they were sitting besides Lindsey and watched the action from afar.

Maria relented, because she knew that he would stick to his guns. God he was like her father. A pitbull who didn´t let go of his victim once he had it. Slowly she stripped off her jacket and threw it on the ground. Then she turned her body around so that Michael could look at her little scratch. But when she heard the intake of breath coming from the others she knew that it probably looked worse than she thought. Confused she tugged the side of her white cardigan forward and saw a large red stain on it. Surprised she looked up at the others. " Ups. It´s bigger than I thought".

Immediately Hanson pulled out a white handkerchief from his jacket and gave it to her in order to stop the blood flow a little. Grateful she took the offered material and pushed it on her wound, while Michael bent down and fetched her jacket before it got dirty. After that he put his hands under his girlfriends feet and lifted her in his arms easily.

" We´re buzzing off now".

Maria would have gladly given her boyfriend a hard time for treating her like some weak little wifey and tell him that she didn´t need his help, she could walk alone. But she knew that it was useless to argue with him, especially when he let the commander out to play. " You know I have two healthy legs I can walk on".

Michael smiled down at her. He liked this position much more. Although he loved her stubborn, bitching and independent character, he had to admit he could get used to this softer side of her. He felt like a normal boy taking care of his injured girlfriend. " I know. But this will look more real in case someone should see us. You know as part of our story".

" In that case forget what I just said", Maria wrapped her arms around Michaels neck and snuggled her head on his chest, all the while trying to forget the pain shooting through her body with every step her boyfriend took. He made an attempt to be careful, but sometimes he moved wrong and his arm would dig on her wound. She was thankful when they finally made it to Hansons police car and she was securely sitting in the backseat with Lindsey.

**Hospital**

Hanson and Michael were pacing the waiting area while Tess and Kyle had made themself comfortable on the ugly brown seats. Lindsey was just going though the standard check up for rape victims and Maria was being treated because of her injury. Everybody was on edge and looking at the entrance every few seconds, when they weren´t watching the doors in which the girls disappeared or eyeing their watch. Suddenly two person were hastily storming towards them with enough noise to wake the dead.

" Where is my daughter?".

Kyle stood up from his place and released Tess´ hand in the process. She had offered him small comfort with this gesture. But nothing could calm him down at the moment. However it was a relieve to see his parents here " She´s still in the examination room".

Amy put her face in her hands and started to cry violently. Instantly Jim embraced her and caressed her back lovingly. He whispered things in her ear and lead her to the plastic chairs. He sat her down besides Tess, who had probably chewed all her fingernails down to the flesh by now. For a few seconds everybody watched the interaction between the married couple until they thougth it was better to leave them be. Michael and Hanson started to pace again and where taking turns looking at the doors. Kyle leant his body against the white wall and rubbed his face.

" Where is Maria?", Jim finally noticed the missing person. Worried he scanned the corridor for the familiar blonde head. But he couldn´t see his daughter anywhere. Questionely he faced his son, who was guilty watching away, then Michael, who had stopped pacing for a moment and tried to look everywhere just not in his eyes.

Hanson saw that nobody had the guts to tell Jim the truth, so he took the task of doing it. Slowly he stepped besides his boss. " Maria will be treated at the moment, but don´t worry it´s nothing serious".

At that Jim lost his cool. Angrily he grapsed his Deputy at his collar and got in his face. He wanted to hurt somebody and he wanted to do it now. Just like someone tried to hurt his little girls. " I want this boy found and killed. I don´t care how long it is taking but every available man will be looking for this bastard. We´re sending out posters with his photo and search parties".

" Jim. Think about what you´re saying. You could lose your job because of this", Hanson was scared of his boss´ sanity. He could understand his anger, after all his daughters were involved and got hurt in his town. But it wasn´t a justification to get all Rambo on this whole thing.

Jim sat down and shook his head vigorously. Like he cared about his job when his daughters had been caused pain. He wanted punishment and he wanted to be the one causing it. He wouldn´t rest until the culprit was found and he could give him what he deserved. " You don´t have to tell me that. I´m well aware of the law. But when you have children and you get the call from a Deputy telling you that your daughter almost got raped and is on her way to the hospital, then I want to see how rational you will be".

Hanson had to admit that Jim had a point there. If his family was on the line, he wouldn´t care about wrong and right. But before he could tell his boss that, Lindsey stepped out of the examination room. Her eyes were red and her make up all over her face. The moment she noticed her parents she started to cry again while her mother jumped from the chair and stormed to her daughter to embrace her. A doctor walked quietly out of the room and went directly towards Jim, who was again in a standing position.

" What is the verdict Doc?".

The doctor smiled reassuringly at the sheriff. They both knew each other a little. They worked together at a few cases. " Lindsey doesn´t have a scratch on her. There are no indication for a rape, nor traces of a fight in any kind. She´s absolutely healthy. Except for missing memories, which will be coming back in a few days".

Jim breathed out relieved and tried to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. He was so thankful that nothing more had happened and that his youngest daughter was spared the pain that followed after getting attacked from someone they thought was a friend. " I´m glad to hear that, George".

" I´m glad to tell you that", George stared at the record in his hand. He was happy that he finally had the chance to say something good at this day. He already had to explain a young couple that their two year old son died because of a pneumonia, tell a man that he lost his wife and their unborn child and break the news of Leukemia to a young girl, who was exercising for a marathon.

Suddenly another door went open and Maria was making her way towards her friends. She was slightly limping and there was a big patch looking out under her cardigan, which looked worse in the fluorescenting light. Almost the whole right side was blood soaked and a few spots were sporting little holes. Jim gapsed loudly at the sight of his daughter and went instantly to her. Carefully he wrapped his arms around her. " Oh my god! What did that son of a b to you?".

Maria was surprised about the bad word her father just said. He wasn´t someone that used cusses too often. In fact, she could count the few times he uttered them. But she enjoyed the warm embrace and the fact that her parents were worried about her. " It´s nothing Dad. Just a slight laceration, which got sewn up already and a light bruise. Everything will be healing soon".

" I don´t know if I should be mad at you for jumping into a dangerous situation or proud because you saved your sister", Jim was debating with himself what he should do with his daughters. He was already thinking about never letting them out of his sight again and hiring bodyguards to protect them. Maybe he should make a trip to the hardware store and buy the alarm system he always wanted, but his wife told him they didn´t need.

Maria knew that this sentence would be uttered from her father. But she was too wasted to listen to the lecture she would be getting. Besides she was so doped up with pain killers that she probably would only hear the half of it and even forget that part by morning. " Not tonight, please. You can be mad at me tomorrow".

Jim pushed his daughter softly away from him and stared in her eyes. She was right, it had been a pretty long and eventful night. " Okay. Let´s get the others and we can go". With a kiss on Marias forehead he walked to his wife and his youngest daughter.

" How bad is it really?", Michael had shown enough patience already and now he wanted to know the truth. He had been with her emotionally and he had felt her pain. That wasn´t just a little scratch no matter what she was trying to sell him and he had sensed a small amount of panic for a moment, which had him worried.

Maria watched out of the corner of her eyes after her family. She didn´t want them to overhear them, because she didn´t want them to know about her not from this world status. Slowly she bent closer to him and snaked her arms around his middle so that it appeared like they were snuggling. Then she pulled his head down. " We have to come back tomorrow or else we´re fed up".

Michael furrowed his brow confused while he appeared to stroke her head tenderly. What had happened behind those white doors, that had her so worried? " Why? What is going on?".

" I was x-rayed and they saw a broken bone that had pushed through my skin. When the doctor wanted to check the wound he witnessed the said bone mending itself", Maria was scared that the wrong people learned about her secret. She knew that most humans feared what they didn´t know and she had watched enough science fiction movies where aliens had been pictured as the enemy or even as soulless creature to imagine what they would do to her if they should ever hear about her that she was a reincarnation of an alien princess/soldier.

Michael´s eyebrows almost reached to his hairline and his heart seemed to pound against his ribcage. Uh Uh, that wasn´t a good sign. In fact it was worse than worse. It was a nightmare they all tried to avoid as much as possible. " Are you sure that he saw it? Can´t we just tell him that he imagined everything?".

Maria shook her head sadly. If it would have been so easy she would have done it already and not alarmed him instead. They had prove in the form of radiographs and that wasn´t something that they could talk away. " Yeah. How do you want to explain him the difference between my actual wound, which is a laceration and a bruise in all colors of the rainbow and my radiographs where everybody can see a bone piercing through flesh?"

" Well, I didn´t think about that actually", Michael was already thinking about a plan to get the pictures and the papers about her. They couldn´t risk to be exposed at the moment, it wasn´t too good to be exposed at all. Especially in a town like Roswell.

Maria saw over her boyfriends shoulder that her family was waiting for them. They were all standing at the door and staring in their direction. " We can talk more about it later. I think the others want to go home".

Michael released his girlfriend and followed her sight. He catched his sisters eyes and he knew that she noticed something was brewing, he could see it in her glance. Maybe it was finally time to talk to her and Kyle. They should know what had been happening the last two days and that they should prepare themself for the upcoming shock about the appearance of certain people. " I think it´s time to tell your brother and Tess the truth".

" I agree. But now let´s go", Maria was in the process to start walking when she was swept of her feet and felt the strong arms of Michael securely holding her tight at his body. Surprised she looked up at him and gazed in his smiling face. " You just do that to impress my father, don´t you?".

Michael chuckled slighty at the accusation. No he didn´t need to impress Jim any longer, he already had the seal of approval. This carrying her around was just a way to make amends with her, after his failed attempt at protecting her and getting her hurt. Besides he saw Richard Gere doing this in one of his movies and the girls loved it. " Now honey, don´t tell me you don´t like it?".

Maria didn´t say anything, she just bent closer to him and kissed him shortly. She had been glad he came out unharmed out of this whole mess. She wouldn´t have handled it well if he had been hurt because of her. She just hoped that it stayed that way.

**Examination room**

A middle aged man with dark blonde hair was sitting in front of the radiographs of Maria Valenti. He eyed them with confusion. He had been doctor for the emergency clinic for ten years now and he never had seen such a thing. He never had witness that a bone had mended itself within seconds and even healed the skin around the area. How was it possible? Was this girl an alien? Or did the town finally get to him and he started to fantasize? Maybe he was working too hard and he just needed a little vacation. But then he saw the entry he had done in the hospital file of the mentioned girl and there was just standing that he sewed a laceration and checked the bruise around it. The longer he stared at the evidence of his discovery, the more he was sure that he had to do something about it. Quickly he took his phone and dialed a number. For a few seconds he waited until the lady at the other end had said her line before he spoke.

" I need the number of the FBI building in Washington D.C.".

**The next day**

Michael, Maria, Tess and Kyle were sitting in the jetta hidden at a curb of a side street near the hospital. The guys sat in the front seasts and watched the entrance while the girls were going though the plan again. They couldn´t allow themself to make a mistake this time, because it could mean that one of their own was in danger and that was the least they needed at the moment. Like it wasn´t already worse enough that they were threatened by aliens, now they would get in trouble with the humans too.

" Are you sure that you want to do that?", Maria was glad that her roommate had agreed to help. But she wasn´t so sure if it was the best solution to let others straighten out her slip. Although she wasn´t at fault at this little incident, because she didn´t have the power to stop her healing process , she had berated herself almost all night for this mess they were in right now.

Tess took the hands of her friend. That girl was worrying too much. After she heard the whole story with Lykus, Nicolai and what really had happened the days before, she was determined to help where she could. Well, as much as her big brother would let her. He was adamant in this things that she couldn´t be mad at him. He was sometimes like a huge teddy bear with an angry face. " Of course. Or I wouldn´t sit here and observe a hospital, cause you know I could be relaxing with your brother and getting my sugar".

Maria shuddered at the thought. She didn´t want to imagine what sugar was implying, but she had a good guess that it wasn´t about candy. First thing she had to do when she got home, she had to wash her brain out and get the nasty picture out of her head. " Be careful. If you think something is going wrong or you have a bad feeling then make a hasty retreat. I don´t want to get anybody else down with me".

" Relax sister dear. God when did you become such a worrywart?", Kyle had enough that Maria was blaming herself for something that she had no control over. All right, he had been angry with her for a moment, but that was just because she had been keeping secrets from him and not trusted him enough to tell him the truth. But it had only lasted a short while. In some way he understood her and why she thought it wasn´t something to worry about.

Maria stuck her tongue out and made a face at her brother. She had a reason for her behaviour and he shouldn´t start to mock her. The last time she had been in contact with her halfbrother, he had been luring Vilandra in his trap and make her a puppet in his strange game. Now he had tried the same with her sister and she just wanted to keep her family save. Even if it meant she had to knock some doctor k.o to get her examination records. " I just don´t want any surprises. If you have a bad feeling, just get out of dodge immediately. Otherwise call me on my cellphone or on Michaels and we´ll be in there saving your asses asap".

Kyle finally saw the soldier she had been in her last life. She had always been a little commanding, but he thought it was a female trait and nothing out of the ordinary. Now he knew better and he could understand the guy choosing her as leading commander. " No need to save our asses. My girl and I are capable of performing a simple assignment without your help".

" Besides I can easily manipulate some minds when the chips are down", Tess tapped on her temple to show the others what she meant. It wasn´t like they were trying to steal the english crown jewels or something. The only problem they would face were observation cameras or at least one guard. Nothing too serious.

Maria hoped that it wasn´t coming to this extreme. She didn´t want anyone harmed, even if it was a mindwarp. She just wanted her file and nothing more. Well it would be nice to get back to the time when her life wasn´t like a movie and her only real problems had been if she had a date for the weekend. God, why didn´t she wake up from this nightmare and start living her real life. " Ok. Don´t take too long. In and out, no stunts or heroics and no funny business. Did I make myself clear?".

Kyle immediately knew that his sister was talking about him and his urge to play the big boy in front of his girls. " Crystal Clear, fearless leader", he made a gun with his hand and clicked with his tongue before he stepped out of the car.

" I´ll be keeping an eye on him, don´t worry", Tess promised while she opened the door and followed her boyfriend. She already knew him and she was afraid he would make more mess than they had. He was sweet, but he was attracting trouble like light a moth.

Maria watched troubled after them both. Why hadn´t she been more careful last night and had forbidden her bones to mend in front of the eyes of a human? Why had she been so stupid to get injured in the first place? Grumpily she threw herself on the backseat and crossed her arms over her chest. She had made so many mistakes during her encounter with the enemy, mistakes a newbie would make, but not someone with her experience and power. She forgot all the things she had learned, such as know your surroundings, size up your enemy, keep your mind open for any noises and be prepared for the unprepared. When did she start abandon her knowledge and just run blindly in a dangerous situation?

" Why don´t you come forward and keep me company", Michael wanted to bring his girlfriend out of her funk she seemed to be in . He had observed her through the rear-view mirror and he instantly saw what was going on with her. For others she was closed off and unreadable, but for him she was like an open book.

Maria looked up and glanced in the rear view mirror where she noticed the amber colored eyes of her boyfriend staring back at her. She was grateful for the distraction and accepted his offer with joy. Thankfully her wound had been healed over night and she had been a cheerleader for years, because she had to bent her body in strange position when she crawled over the front seats to slump besides Michael. " Ugh. Remind me to do that never again".

Michael sniggered behind his hand at her. Nobody had told her she should do a gymnastic exercise just to get forward. She could have opened the door, step out on the pavement, close the door and do the same again at the front. But no she had to choose the hard way, like always. " I´ve got no sympathy for you. You could have used the door".

" And you could have helped me by not taken up the whole front with your big body", it had looked like a good idea and she had done it a lot of times. All right, she had been younger and smaller at that times. But she thought she was still in shape to do that. Now she knew better, but she didn´t need someone to point it out to her.

Michael glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. Was she serious? Sometimes he wondered why he fell in love with a whack job. Granted, she was hot and they had much in common, but her sanity seemed to be none existent in some circumstances, like right now. " Right. I forgot, I´m always at fault, no matter what I do".

Maria would have loved to slap him upside his head for his snide remark, but something at the entrance of the hospital was catching her attention. Two men in black suits and black sunglasses were just in the process to walk into the building. They weren´t looking like they came from Roswell or had been injured. Strange, they were looking like those FBI chaps from the MIB movie. " Shut up for a moment. I think we´ve got more trouble than we thought".

Michael turned around quickly and watched the two men disappearing behind the electric doors. But even from the distance and the backside, he could regnorize the trouble they would be in. He was suddenly feeling like they were a X-File and every moment they got a visit from Scully and Mulder. Damn, like they needed this right now. It was already hard enough to be a young adult without the added alien related problems. " We should give our siblings a heads up".

" And how do you suggest we do that?", Maria knew that they couldn´t just call them, because they would draw attention to themself. So it was out of the question. " I think a ringing cellphone will be too stiking".

Michael rubbed his chin thoughtful while he pondered his options. Well his girl was right in one point, they couldn´t just call them. Which was the reason why he threw the idea from his mind. They also couldn´t just walk in there and warn them, that would take too much time, especially when they didn´t know where the other two were. " You could do this mind thing you did with me. You know talking to me mentally".

Maria thought about the suggestion. It sounded like a feasibility. " Yeah. But I never tried that with a human. It was easy with you, because we´re both the same and we had this connection in our past life".

" That´s right, but you´re a twin now and this bond is even stronger than this of a couple", he should know it. Thankfully Tess had a strong mind and could block him out most of the time. And he was usually so guarded that nothing could make it past his mental walls. But sometimes they had tiny glimpses in the thoughts of the other and that was enough to last for a lifetime.

Maria knew that they didn´t have too much time to now and the men in blacks could already be near their siblings. " Okay. I´ll try it", without waiting for an answer she closed her eyes and breathed evenly in and out. She had to clear her mind and search for the link that would lead her to her brother. But nothing was happening until she felt Michael taking her hand and calming her down. In that moment her body made a jerk forwards and she felt her mind opening for the things around her. Suddenly she heard Kyle´s thoughts, like he would be standing besides her and talking loudly.

_´Vace, Vadek, Vagore and Valentine. But no fucking Valenti. Oh stop found it. Shit it´s Dads record. And there´s Mums. Mmmhhh she never told us about the failed tattoo she had to get removed. I have to ask her about it sometime. Focus Valenti, don´t get distracted, you´re here to do a job and not snoop in the records of your parents. Where would I be when I would be a radiograph? On the desk maybe? No too obvious. In the desk? Possibility._

_Kyle stop what you´re doing and come out. I think there are FBI Agents on their way to you. Get the hell out of there. Now!_

_Whoaw! What the hell was that? That sounded like Maria, but I don´t see her. Strange, must be the lack of sleep._

_ Kyle, here is your sister talking and she tells you to get Tess and walk to the fing car. This instant or I will personally come and kick your ass!_

_Oh damn, it is really you. Geez, you don´t even have privacy with your own thoughts with you people. _

_KYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

_´Okay, Okay. We´ll be outside immediately. Don´t fret. Now I have to be careful what I think, too. Like I don´t have enought trouble with all this aliens invading my life and turning it upside down. Great, in my next life I want to be a tree or some kinda wild animal or even a damn flower._

_I can still hear you_

_Do you mind. I want to be alone with my thoughts if you don´t have anything against that. We´ll see each other in a few seconds._

_All right. Be careful_

Maria´s body fell against the car seat and she was glad to be out of her brothers mind. That had been more straining than she thought. Bloody hell he had more thoughts running through his head than even she could count. No wonder he was often elsewhere when she talked to him. " I warned Kyle. They should be on their way to us".

Michael was glad that she was with him again. It had been scary to see her so lifeless sitting besides him and not to be in a position to help in any kind. He just had been staring at her and observed her chest to see if she was still breathing. " And how was it? Did you finally figure your brother out?".

" Don´t remind me to never get in there. It´s an experience I never want to make again".

Michael chuckled behind his hand and tried to mask it as an cough. Yeah he could imagine better things than rummaging around in Kyle´s mind. Maybe a little trip into Marias thoughts. He would probably finally find out what went though her head sometimes and if he was lucky see a few of her fantasies. " That bad huh?".

Maria knew that she was exaggerating big time. It hadn´t been too bad to hear what was going through her brothers head, after all she could be grateful that he hadn´t thought about sex or imagine her roommate in situation that would probably make her uncomfortable in the others girl presence, but a mind was a private refuge and it should be protected from intruders. " Well it could have been worse. But next time you talk to your sister".

" We have a deal", Michael pulled his girlfriend closer to his body and kissed her head. She had been through so much the last few days and she never faltered or collapsed under the pressure, which was weightening heavily on her right now. He admired her will to withstand every problem no matter how hard. Life always puts obstacles in her way and she easily maneuvered around them. Other girls in her place would have already given up and ducked out of their responsibility. But not Maria, she laughed in the face of danger and then kicked its ass.

Maria closed her eyes and enjoyed the safety of the embrace of her boyfriend. For the first time since last night, she felt like her mind was quiet for a while and didn´t think about anything. She was so sick of acting like an adult and taking responsibility for things that were out of her range. She wished she could be honest with her parents and tell them about her alien side. Then she could talk to them and not have the feeling to lie about certain things. And they could help her by being careful of strangers and protect themself. But how could she tell them to look out, when they would ask for what they should look out. She hated her life right now, it really sucked and she just wanted to turn back the time until she was a naive teenager again and her biggest problems had been if her clothes were matching her purse. Scratch that, actually she didn´t want to be that girl she had been before, no she was glad that she finally learned about herself and meet great people in the process. She wouldn´t want to trade this for everything on this planet. All those things had lead her right to this moment and to the strong arms of a man she loved more than her own life.

Suddenly the back doors flew open and their absent partners in crime jumped on the backseat. According after their expression it had been a touch and go. Tess was white as a ghost, her hair stuck on her forehead and she was breathing heavily. Kyle was trying to help her by talking to her quietly and stroking the hand he was holding.

" What happened?", Michael was alarmed at the state his sister was in. She didn´t look healthy and it worried him. What could possible be the cause that Tess was like that? It hadn´t been an attack, because they would have noticed something or he would have felt something at least.

Kyle had put his girlfriends head on his shoulder and was now stroking her head tenderly. He had been scared when he saw Tess like that and for the first time he really knew what he had admitted to. It wasn´t like he thought it was easy fighting with aliens and everything. But he had noticed how different they were and how little he could help his friends. " She just needs a little rest. I think she used too much energy".

Maria was glad to hear that, because she didn´t want to be the reason that another person was harmed in any way. Even if Tess wasn´t exactly defenseless and could take care of herself. " Should we bring you home?".

" No. Give me a few minutes and I´ll be ready to take up another challenge", Tess had never checked the limits for her powers. Actually she never tested how far she could go without hurting herself in the process. But now she knew the moment when she had to stop. Hell if Kyle hadn´t dragged her out of the hospital, she would have probably crashed her whole body system or commited suicide.

Michael punished her with a raised eyebrow and his stern look. She should be careful with her powers and not strain herself. It wouldn´t be helpful for them when she got hurt or killed, because she gave too much. " Like hell you will! I knew there was a reason why I didn´t wanted to tell you anything. You just get into trouble and I get distracted because I worry about you. The next time you have the urge to help, do it by staying safe somewhere else".

Maria was shocked about his outburst and jumped surprised about the volume of his voice. She had never seen him so angry before, at least in his human form. Rath was another story, because he was born anry at everyone crossing his path. For a strange reason this side of him was pretty hot and she would need to wind down the window before she burned down the interior of the car. " Michael! Don´t start this topic now. We have to be somewhere in", she eyed her watch on her wrist and startled. Holy crap! Was it that late already? Uh Uh, Larek would probably curse them right now. " We should have been there half an hour ago actually".

" This thing is not over, not by a long shot", heatedly he turned back to the steering wheel, started the car and pushed into the first gear with almost enough force to destroy the poor engine. The others in the car had to hold onto something or they would have flung through the damn car despite their seatbelts.

**UFO-Center**

Larek stomped along his office with a worried expression and an audience watching him move from one point to the other. Hanson, Corly, Max, Isabel, Alex and Liz were sitting scattered around the room on things that looked like it would hold a human being. They were torn between amusement about the state of the walking man or anger because they were waiting for the others of their team. The silence in the office was almost eerie and nobody dared to make too much sound to disturb the quiet. Sometimes a silent curse would flow from Lareks mouth and some of them weren´t even in english. Here and there a antarian word would shoot out of him without him knowing it. Corly and Hanson hid their sniggers behind their hands, because they could understand everything. Isabel and Max were trying to translate it so that the humans could understood it.

" What is keeping them so long? Where are they? And why don´t they have the decency to call at leat if they should be late?", Larek would rip them in pieces when he would learn that they forgot their meeting or had been doing dirty things without paying attention to the time.

Corly stood up from the ugly grey seatbag and put herself in the path of her boyfriend. He was making himself sick with concern and he didn´t need that. They were talking about Rath and Marianna, there weren´t many other people on this planet with their powers. Actually there were none, except for the two of course. " Cut them some slack or are you forgetting what happened last night? It had been a hell of a fight and you saw the many blood on Marias clothes".

Larek glared at her. Like he needed a reminder about the incident. He wouldn´t forget it so easily anymore and he almost lost his food when he saw the blood stain. But Hanson already told him that Maria was fine and nothing was broken or damaged. " Thanks for mentioning it. I´m really glad to have you in my life so that you can point the most obvious things to me".

" Don´t you dare take this tone with my sister", suddenly a female voice boomed through the room. Everybody turned to the door and saw Maria leaning against the frame with Michael, Tess and Kyle behind her. Her eyes were gleaming dangerously at Larek and her face was twisted into an angry mask.

Larek was rivaling her with his pissed of expression and this time he wasn´t scared of her. She wouldn´t hurt him, because they were friends and he knew that. Besides he had a right to be angry, not her. And he could talk to his girlfriend anyway he wanted. " Nice of you to finally join us. What did keep you up so long? Nookie?".

Now Kyle had enough of the fighting for today and the screaming aliens. Did all those males have a short fuse? Or was it just with the two? Thankfully Max was a rather quiet example and despite his geeky characters a pretty comfortable companion. " Hey. We have bigger problems at the moment than this damn meeting alright".

" Would you all finally stop with all this yelling! I´m getting a headache from it", Hanson felt like he was the only adult in this room. Now he knew how it would be when he would have children. Damn, hopefully he got deaf until then or he developed the power to block them out. When he noticed that he had the attention of everybody he faced the other boy. " What problems are you talking about?".

Kyle glanced at his sister and gave her a sign that it was her show. Slowly Maria stepped forward and looked at everyone. She was a little confused why Isabel and Alex where here. Did she come with Max yesterday? And why didn´t she know about it? Shaking her head she turned to the topic at hand. They had much more trouble than that. " My injury last night wasn´t just a little scratch. I was x-rayed and a doctor told me that a bone had broken and pierced through my flesh, but when he wanted to check the wound again, he witnessed the said bone mending itself and by doing that healing part of the hurt skin around it. Today we wanted to get the evidence, because we thought it was safer that way. Unfortunately we had been a little too late for that".

Corly stopped biting her fingernails. That sounded extremely bad and she knew it would be getting worse. Of course it had been bad enought that Maria had been hurt, but this was making everything more difficult. " What do you mean too late?".

" We saw two men in black walking into the hospital today and believe me they hadn´t been there to visit their sick grandma", Maria waited for the verbal explosion she had to expect from the others. She had risked the exposure of them and it wasn´t something to be taken slightly.

Hanson scratched his chin thoughtfully. Now that explained a lot. " That was probably the reason why the sheriff took so hastily his keys and stormed out of the departement when he got the strange phone call from the hospital. He didn´t even took the time to tell us what was going on".

Kyle slumped into the nearest chair and put his head in his hands. Now that was making the whole mess a little more complicated when even their father was involved. " This means we´re royalty fed".

" Don´t say that. We survived much worse situations. We just have to stick together and make a plan about this FBI goons", Tess made herself comfortable on her boyfriends lap and snuggled her head at his shoulder. Not everything was lost, they were just at the beginning. Furthermore, Michael wouldn´t allow that someone, especially some humans would harm Maria in any kind.

All of the sudden they heard the entrance to the museums slam shut with a loud bang. Startled everybody glanced at the door of the office and listened to the steps coming towards them. With bated breath they waited who would be coming next. Surprised they identified Lykus stretching his head though the gap of the doorframe. " Sorry for being so late. Did you already start without me?".

Maria whirled around and pointed a finger at Larek, who counted on this reaction. He had to repress his urge to grin at her, because he was sure it wouldn´t be healthy for him. " What is he doing here? And what is up here?".

" All right. I think it´s time for the truth now", Larek rubbed his face nervously while he thought about bailing through the emergency exit behind him. He had hoped that Nolak would do this conversation. But he had dumped all this responsibility on his shoulders, because he obviously had let him down one time or something like that. " First of all Hanson here is Reshak, my halfbrother", shocked sounds were heard around the room. Nobody had known about that. But not because he had been ashamed of him, it was rather the fact that he found it out himself three years ago. " Secondly Lykus is working for our side now and the most important thing, we´re not the only aliens on earth".

TBC


	52. Chapter 52

**Chapter 50 Fairytales are true**

The last statement of Larek was meet with unbelievable glances, angry expressions and shocked faces. Exactly the reaction that was expected. It had to be a surprise to know that they had been lied to and things got withheld from them. Well it hadn´t been an easy decision to keep everything back until they thought it was time to drop the bomb on them and with that the truth about their destiny. Larek knew that the next news might be upsetting for a few attendants and he was nervous to continue. He looked around in the faces of past friends, new friends and his family. He was sure that it was the right thing to be honest with them. Besides they had to prepare for certain things, now that Nicolai made his first move. They hadn´t been sure if he already knew about the whereabouts of his halfsister or any other of the royal children. But that changed last night with the attack on Marias sister. Their enemies had been closer than everybody thought.

Michael held his hands up and his expression was revealing the confused state he was in. " Whoa. Hold on for a damn minute. What do you mean we´re not the only aliens here? Didn´t you tell us something completely different on our first meeting?".

" I know and I´m sorry for lying to you. But you had to deal with so much new informations and we thought we shouldn´t tell you about everything until you were ready to know about it or we had to step up our plan", Larek thought the latter was the case in this situation, because his former friends weren´t half prepared for the things they had to face. Besides Khivar was not stupid and he had infiltraded spies in their midst to get information. They had been there before Marianna even came to the castle of King Salem and nobody had noticed anything. Until now they didn´t know who was the traitor. Of course everybody had his speculations, but there wasn´t anything solid.

Maria had to sit down, because she didn´t trust her legs to keep her standing. Carefully she walked to the bed couch, where Liz and Max were already sitting, arms around each other. With a sigh she placed herself besides them and her best friend immediately took her hand to support her. Grateful she smiled at Liz before turning her attention to Larek. " I just have this tiny question. Are there more things we should know about? Or are we too young and too stupid to know about it? I mean you make us sound like children who are just learning to walk. We´re not five years old, we can handle bad news".

Larek saw the other royals nodding their heads approvingly. They seemed to have the same oppinion like Maria. All right, they wanted to know everything, he would give them everything. Then it was up to them what they did with it. " Okay, whatever you want. But don´t complain to me when you don´t like what you hear", he saw the disbelieving glances directed at him and he took a deep breath. He was grateful that at least Corly was at his side, who was encouraging holding his hand. She knew the story already and she had been in agreement with him that it was better to keep quiet for a while before telling them about it. " So everything started with the appearance of Marianna at the palace. We knew the day would come when she fell in our lifes and we also knew what part she had to play".

" What do you mean you knew I would be coming?", Maria was torn between listening to the answer or jumping to her feet and dart out of the room. On the one hand she wanted to learn as much as she could, but on the other maybe it wasn´t so bad to be in the dark about a few things. However if she could protect her family, she would do everything she could.

Larek was relieved that her anger was slowly ebbing away and she seemed to be more reasonable at the moment. Too bad that it wouldn´t stay that way, at least when she heard what he had to say, because everything started with her and it would end with her. " There was this myth about a lost princess, who would stray from her path because she learned what it meant to feel such pain that it would almost kill a person. A girl that had lived a thousand lifes and never really died. She had been cursed and she was forced to lose her beloved ones in every lifetime".

Maria could remember her mother telling her this story before she went to sleep. Sometimes she had imagined how the girl had looked like and how sad she had to be. She had thought it had to be aweful to see the people you love die, which she experienced herself later and she could say it was even worse than she originally imagined it. " What does that have to do with me?".

" You had been this princess", Larek knew that she wouldn´t believe it and it wasn´t such a wonder. " Wait here", without waiting for an answer he quickly walked out of his office and left the others pretty confused behind. They stared at each other and wondered what he was doing now.

Michael pushed himself from the wall he had been standing and walked towards Maria. She was looking so lost right now and although she was sitting besides two people she appeared to be alone. Carefully he kneeled in front of her and took her hands. " Are you sure you´re ready for this meeting? Everybody would understand if you want to go home".

Maria shook her head sadly. No matter how much she wished to be somewhere else, she had to know what she made wrong in her other life, so that she wouldn´t do it all over again and lose her family in the process. She had still enough guilt from her past self that it already extended for the next life. " I´m fine".

" That´s not entirely true, but I let it slide this time", Michael rose to his full height, pulled his girlfriend from the couch, sat on her place and dragged her on his lap. Now he was calmer knowing that she was sure that she wasn´t alone. Besides he needed the contact right now, because a feeling told him that it would get nasty soon.

Maria snuggled her head on her boyfriends shoulder and looked at her best friend, who was dreamily holding the hand of Max. Both faces were glowing happily and a slight blush was grazing their cheeks. The first evidence about the activity of them last night. Yeah, at least someone could enjoy the time at home. " So Maxie. How did you like the lingerie Liz brought for you?".

Max almost choked on his own tongue for a moment. His face was getting redder and he was two seconds away from a heartattack. Nervously he pulled at the collar of his sweater and started to stutter like a pubescent highschool boy. " It was a surprise".

" You both really did it? Oh my god", Maria was amazingly looking at her best friend. That little witch had been to third base and didn´t bother to tell her about it. That was unacceptable. They had to change that this evening.

Liz hid her face behind her hands and ignored the amused glances of the others in the room. Oh my gosh! Why couldn´t the ground beneath her open up and swallow everyone around her. And why were all staring at her like she was a hooker from the street. " Could you all do me a favour? Occupy yourself with something else".

Kyle grinned at her and made a thump up to Max. Then he turned to his other childhood friend. " Pay up Alex. I win".

" You did not bet on my brother, did you?", Isabel gazed annoyed at the two boys. She didn´t know what she had thought when she started to date Alex. He and Kyle were worse than herding cats. Incredibly she turned to Tess, who just shook her head at them.

Maria tried to cover her laughing by pressing her face into her boyfriends shoulder. She didn´t know them any different and that meant something, because they all grew up together. Those two had been up to no good in their childhood and a small part of it had survived their puberty. They appeared to be young adults from the outside, but on the inside they still were the same boys, who talked about Spiderman versus Batman for hours without getting bored. " What have I done to deserve such a brother?".

As if on cue Larek stormed back into the room with what looked like an old book in his hands. He dropped it on his desk with a loud bang. Now everybody was looking at the object like it was a toy for kids. Some eyed it with confusion and some with asking expressions. But two immediately regnorized the book. " I see you remember it".

" Why did you take it with you? I mean it had been pretty useless the last time we looked into it", Maria had been sitting up straight when she saw the familiar sign on the cover. It was the treasure she and Rath had to find on Antar. When they discovered the strange things standing in there, they had been disappointed.

Larek opened the book with the flick of his wrist and the sheets turned without anyone touching them. After a few seconds it stopped at a certain page. " Don´t say anything right now. Just listen and maybe something sounds familiar to you".

_As the gods still walked on earth_

_There had been a goddess so beautiful_

_That no man could resist her._

_Her voice was like gold and _

_Let man become slave to their hormones_

_Just one man was immune to her and_

_He fell in love with her despite his resistence_

_He was the equal to her and the only creature worthy of her_

_There was just one problem, the man had been no god_

_And their love was forbidden from the council of gods._

_However the lovers didn´t care about the rules and _

_Performed their love in secret whenever they could._

_One day the gods learned about the relationship and_

_Punished the goddess for her disregard._

_She was cursed to find love for eternity and _

_Always lose this love again and _

_Never find true happiness forever._

_Until a new life would set her free._

Isabel and Tess dreamily listened as the last sentenced finished. That had been so romantic and so sad at the same time. It was like Romeo and Juliet, just with godess and mortals. They should made a movie about this, because a love story is always a good things. In contrast the boys just thought it was a load of crap and that something like that was just a tale to let little girls believe that love would always find a way.

" That´s a beautiful story, but what does that have to do with us?", Maria didn´t see the connection between her past self and this godess. Although since she heard the story, pictures were floating around her head and made her remember things that felt so damn real. Something about a man with warm brown eyes, unshaved and a rare smile plastering his egded face.

Larek flipped the pages again and lifted his forefinger to indicate silence. " I´m not finished yet", then he started to read aloud again.

_Once upon a time there was a princess, who was different than every other girl in her status. She was kind, lovely and always was nice to the town people. The citizen all loved her, although they despised her father, the most cruel creature the hell had spit out. He was cold, heartless and sucked the life out of everyone around him. Just his daughter was resistent against it and rivaled him with her brightness and her gift to warm everything just with a glance. One day the king made a mistake and killed the only person the princess loved dearly, her mother. From this point on, her life changed and she promised herself she would do everything in her powers to give her father back what he had done to her. Unfortunately the king ordered the murder of the princess and she had to escape her home and her friends to save her life. Although she was severely hurt, she made it to the other side and with that to the other kingdom. There her life was saved from the son of the commander. Since then they both developed a strange relationship. Everybody saw that they both were on love. But obstacles were blocking their path of happiness. The princess was too scared to love and lose it again and the commanders son had been promised to another woman. However despite their initial difficulties, their bodies couldn´t deny what the hearts wanted and so they both slowly built up their relationship until they formed an unstructable bond. For a short time they could enjoy their new found happiness. But then a tragedy striked and put their love through a hard test. In the end they won the insight that love could survive everthing, but lost their lifes in the process._

Larek looked up at the others and noticed that he had the attention of everyone. They all had silently listened to the tale. Isabel was holding her hand in front of her mouth and tried to keep her tears at bay, while Max shook his head slowly as the knowledge finally find the way into his brain. Tess turned her direction to her brother and her roommate, after all the story was about them. If they wanted it or not. Michael and Maria stared at each other for a moment before they faced their former best friend again. " Sounds pretty familiar? No wonder, everything is coming back onto you two. This book is full of tales about you both. You have lived a thousand lifes and everytime it started badly for you".

Maria stood up from the lap of her boyfriend and went to the desk where the book was lying. She eyed the opened side with disbelieve and browsed through the pages with anger. How could they withhold this information from her? How could they live with the knowledge that they doomed everybody in this room? Maybe even the whole planet. " Why didn´t you say something sooner? You knew about this all this time and you didn´t think it was important to tell us".

" You weren´t ready to know it. We all agreed to wait with it until we thought it was time", Larek knew that he should expect a hell of a reaction from her. She wasn´t someone who took it lightly to be left in the dark. It couldn´t even be ruled out that Michael would keep his cool.

Maria regarded the pictures of her, Rath, Vilandra, Ava and Zan. Sadly she stroked over the grim looking face of her past lover. It had all been her fault that everybody died. Her mother, her friends and her second family, all of them. Because she had been cursed in some life she didn´t even know about until now. Furious she took the book in her hand and threw it with all her might at the next wall and barely missed her brother´s head by inches. " Why did you allow them to go through with our plan when you knew about the outcome? You´re the reason my sister is sitting at home and is scared to step out of the house. You could have stopped all this and you didn´t do a damn thing".

Larek hadn´t even flinched when the book crashed against the wall. Calmly he went to the spot it was lying and lifted it up from the ground. Carefully he wiped the dirt from it and gave it to Corly, who was shocked about the outburst of her sister. She had never seen such a reaction from the other girl before. " That´s not exactly right. Firstly we didn´t know about this destiny until after your death and secondly the curse had been lifted before we sent your essence to earth. So if you want to blame someone, then blame another person".

" What do you mean, the curse had been lifted?", Maria thought back about the goddess tale. She was sure she heard the word forever in it, which meant the curse couldn´t just disappear. How could one lift a curse at all?

Larek turned to Corly to see if she was of the opinion as him about telling the secret they had been hiding. After he got a faint nod from his girlfriend, he faced his former friend and tried to get carefully out of reach. " When we prepared the bodies, we discovered that Marianna had been pregnant and this was the only way the curse could be broken".

Maria lost all of her anger at once and sat down on the desk. For a moment she thought she had to puke her food all over the floor, but she could catch herself right in time and keep everything where it should be. Tears were rising in her eyes and she hid her face in her hands. She didn´t cry like everyone expected, she was too angry with herself to do that. Suddenly strong arms were wrapping around her middle and pressing her at a warm body. She didn´t even need to look to know who it was. There was just one man who could give her this nice tingling feeling inside. She was so grateful that they could understand each other without words and that he always knew what she needed. " I killed our baby".

" Don´t say that. You didn´t know that you were pregnant", Michael slowly rocked her without noticing their audience. He was berating himself for not picking something up. He was an empath and he felt things before others even realized that something was wrong. How could he have ignored such a thing! A child, his child.

Maria looked up at him. How could he be so calm about everything? Because of a damn curse she got thousand of years ago she killed everyone around her. " I should have known it. Which mother doesn´t know that she´s pregnant?".

At that Liz, who had been quiet the whole time, spoke up. She didn´t want to destroy the private conversation between the lovers, but she had the urge to say something. " My mother noticed her pregnancy in her third month. She just realized that she was gaining weight and she got dizzy spells once in a while. It´s not unusual for a woman to not notice that she´s pregnant".

" Yeah, my mother was the same. My father picked up a gastric flu and puked his guts out all day. Then my mother started to vomit in the morning and in the evening, she thought she got infected from him. When her sickness didn´t go away after a three weeks she went to a doctor and he told her that she was eight weeks pregnant", Alex had no out of space powers, but even he could feel the tension in the air. He knew that this meeting wouldn´t be pleasant when he got the phone call this morning and he thought he already there was nothing in this world that could shock him anymore, but he got put right. He was fine with the fact that his best friend since childhood was not so normal like he always thought, he was all right with the whole past lifes of her and four other people. But he wasn´t okay with the way Larek handled things.

Maria smiled at her friends with gratitude. Even if they couldn´t take away her pain, which she still carried from her former self. But she was thankful that she at least tried to cheer her up. " Thanks guys".

Isabel left her comfy place and started to pace around the small office. There were still things she didn´t understand or they didn´t add up with everything. A feeling told her that there was more to this all then Larek was telling them right now. " Okay I get this destiny thing. But what has it to do with your first statement that we´re not the only aliens on earth?".

" Actually nothing, but you need to know the background before you tell a story and I wanted to get this out of the way before I got to the most important matter, which is telling you about our underground base here in Roswell", Larek hoped that he didn´t expect too much too soon from all of them. Half of the group had been through hell last night and they needed time to recover from it. But part of him knew that it was the right time to get everything out and prepare them slowly for the battle, which was lurking somewhere in the horizont.

At the mention of the underground base the guys listened and their interest was drawn. They always tried to appear like grown ups, but in their hearts they were still young boys loving to play with weapons. They already imagined wearing camo suits, paint their faces with colors and act like real soldiers. Finally they could take their knowledge from watching Rambo many times and put it into practise.

Now Hanson stood up and went to the west wall, where many pictures of sightings were hanging. Quickly he waved his hand over a spot and withing seconds the wall had disappeared. At its place there was a huge board with blinking red lights, green lights and orange lights. At some points were flags, white lines crossed from one side to the other and buildings got mentioned. " This is the newest technology earth created. We know where our allies are at the moment and we also know where our foes are. Our allies have green lights, foes are red and orange means you five".

" Holy shit! This is so cool", Alex jumped to his feets and walked to the glowing thing. Excited he eyed the work put into it and wondered how it was build, how many components it had and how long it took. He felt like a kid on christmas.

Maria left the security of her boyfriends embrace and followed her best friend to the board. But contrary to him she didn´t care about the technology used for it. She had more interest in knowing the location of Nicolai and his lousy lackeys. Bloody hell, her halfbrother had more people with him than she had originally thought. " I still don´t understand why you waited so long to tell us about this. Because I don´t think you have this knowledge since yesterday. This plan here needed much time to get performed. Which brings me to another question and believe me if I don´t get a honest answer I will blow up your building to Antar and back. Why do you know so much about Nicolai and his whereabouts?".

Larek noticed that anger bubbled in her and it wouldn´t need much to let her explode. Strange, usually that had been Rath´s traits. He was the hothead and not her. Maybe the mixed their essence together at some point. Or she picked it up from Michael. " Before we put your essence into the fetuses, we discovered that one of our people was playing against us and that he sold us out to the enemy. We still don´t know who was it, but we´re a little careful since then and that´s the reason why we kept a low profile for so long".

" But why didn´t you attack them when you knew where they had been? I mean you could have killed them without making a big fuss", Michael finally find his voice again to join the conversation. He still was in some kinda shock. They knew all along what would happen and they lived their happy life without thinking about how he and the others would feel when they learned about this.

Larek rubbed his face, now he was in huge trouble. It was bad enough to have one of them on his back, but them both? He should make his last will, because he felt like a defenseless lamb in the middle of two lions. " If it would have been so easy to wipe out the whole army of Khivar, we wouldn´t have needed to create you again. Just you five have the power to destroy our enemy and with that save Antar and probably earth, too".

Corly saw the struggle her boyfriend went through and went immediately at his side. Carefully she put her hand on his back and caressed it. Angrily she faced the two troublemaker. " Don´t attack him because you don´t understand everything. We all were in agreement to leave you in the dark and it hadn´t hurt you in any kind. You had a normal childhood and you could live your life in peace or would you have prefered to live in fear or think all day about saving your planet? We did everything possible to shield you from any harm and we lived for protecting you. So don´t come here and play the victims!".

" Oh yeah! We weren´t asked to be the token in your twisted game! We weren´t asked if we wanted to be reborn or if we wanted be thrust into a world in which people feared what they don´t know and that includes us. Do you think it was funny to grow up and to know that you were different than anybody else?", Michael let everything out and didn´t hold back any longer. He felt so much emotions at the moment and he didn´t know if they all belonged to him or if he picked up a few from the others. But part of it was his own pain and anger. His whole life he just wanted to know why he had this gifts and what purpose they had. Now he had his answers and he hated it. He hated it to be left out, to be the last to know everything.

Maria felt the ground beneath her shaking and loosely things started to jump in the air. The office door was opening and closing, which almost got Alex knocked out, because he was sitting near it. In an instant she took the face of her boyfriend in her hands and made him look in her eyes. " Calm down. You won´t solve anything if you start blow everything up".

Michael struggled a few seconds against the hold, but gave up when he realized she wouldn´t release him. Angrily he glared at her. " Aren´t you pissed that they interefered in our lifes, just like that? They played god and now they want us to save two planets".

" I can´t be mad at them. They just carried out what I wanted them to do. This", Maria pointed with her hand around them. " was my idea. I gave the order".

Michael´s anger hit a new level and his eyes darkened dangerously. Larek, Corly and Hanson stepped back to bring themself in a safe distance. Even Maria cringed at the sight. But before anyone could say something he stormed past his girlfriend and almost destroyed the door when he walked out of the office.

Kyle watched shocked after his roommate and wondered how much power he really possessed. He had felt the earthquake seconds ago and he knew that it was needed a lot of energy to do that. Suddenly he saw his sister following the angry alien and he snatched her arm. " What do you think you´re doing?".

" I have to sort a few things out with the hothead outside".

Kyle shook his head worriedly. He was completely against this idea, although he knew that Maria was strong. But with the state Michael was in, he was afraid that his sister wouldn´t survive this conversation. " Let him cool down a bit and then try talking to him".

Maria smiled at her brother. She was really touched about his protectiveness, but he shouldn´t be concerned about her. She went against other men, men with no conscience and no remorse. She would manage a little fight with her lover. " I know what I´m doing. Don´t worry about me. You heard what Larek read. I had been a goddess and we don´t die so easily".

" Be careful nontheless", Kyle didn´t want to explain to his father why his two daughters were hurt within two days. Especially when he couldn´t tell him exactly the truth about the situation.

Maria squeezed her brothers arm before she left the others behind. Immediately when the door closed behind her, she started to blew off her steam in a not so quiet volume. The reply was equally loud and matched the character. After that insults flew from both sides and even a few name were called. The remaining people in the office tried to stiffle their laughter, while appearing like they didn´t listen to everything.

Kyle looked at the guys in the room. " I bet 10 dollars on Michael winning this fight".

Isabel turned to him and wondered how he made it so far in his life. The guy was always thinking like a little boy. He couldn´t make bets on people fighting with each other, especially when one of them was his sister. " Do you have nothing better to do then making bets on everything? Besides Maria will so kick his ass that he gives up on his own free will".

" Do you wanna bet on that?", Kyle stretched his hand out and held it towards her with a mischievously grin on his face. He already imagined what he could do with the money he would win, because his buddy wouldn´t back down this time.

Isabel slapped his hand away. Urrggg, he was just so immature. She had pity with Tess. What her friend saw in this prime example of getting a lesbian, she didn´t know. Poor Maria was even related to this walking airhead. " I´m not betting on my friends".

Kyle smiled confidental at her. He would get her to make a bet on her friends and if it was the last thing he did on earth. She wasn´t so nice like she appeared. Even she had a dark side and he would tickle it out of her. " Yeah, because you´re afraid to lose against me".

" No, because I´m the mature one of us", after she received an unbelieving glance from him, she bristle about to obvious mocking. Sending him her iciest glare she pulled her wallet out of her jeans and took a ten dollar bill out of it. " Alright. You want to lose your money, that´s your problem. I´m holding your bet".

Kyle ripped the money out of Isabels grasp and put it to his. Then he eyed the others in the room. " Anybody else interested?".

Alex, much to everybody´s surprise, snatched 10 bucks from his pants and gave it his friend. He couldn´t leave his best buddy alone with his idea. Besides he could use the money right now. " I place on Michael".

" Well, then I bet on Maria", Liz felt her jeans for her wallet. But unfortunately she had left it at home. " I´ll give you the money later".

Max was amazingly starring at his girlfriend. He wouldn´t have thought that she was do something so childish. Quietly laughing he shook his head, because he couldn´t believe what he was in the process to do. He took a ten dollar bill out of his wallet and held it up. " I´m with Alex and Kyle".

Tess rolled her eyes at the stupid behaviour everybody was showing. But unfortunately she didn´t want to be the one ruining the whole fun of this and get money from her purse. " Then I´m with Isabel and Liz".

" That makes three votes for Michael and three for Maria", Kyle faced the four other people, who had watched the interaction with a touch of amusement, but hadn´t commented on it. " What about you?".

Larek quickly glanced at his girlfriend to see her reaction. She knew about his past and his obsession about gambling. She even was the one getting him out of trouble in Vegas. The story he told Maria wasn´t a lie at all. It really happened and almost cost him his sanity and his money. Thankfully she thought this little bet was not dangerous and nodded at him. " Ok. Ten bucks on Maria".

Corly chuckled at his choice. She had thought he would place on his former best friend. But he was obviously the opinion that it was safer to bet on Maria. " I´m with him".

" Sorry bro, but I have to disagree with you there. I place my money on Michael", Hanson heard enough rumours about Rath on Antar to know that it wasn´t healthy to stand up against him. Even if he picked up a few people talking about the mystery of a girl brave enough to not back down from him.

Lykus felt a little jittery since Maria went out the door and faced the beast alone. Well he knew that Rath wouldn´t hurt her in any kind, because he loved her, but that didn´t make him less concerned. " I place on Maria".

Kyle finally moved his butt out of his chair and get a piece of paper and a pencil from Lareks desk. Then he wrote the names, their bets and how much money in the pot was on it. " So, we have 6 votes for Maria, 4 for Michael and a pot of 100 Dollars".

" How do we actually know who won the fight?", Tess was sure that they couldn´t exactly ask them that. Firstly they wouldn´t even get a straight answer and secondly nobody would have the guts to ask in the first place.

Kyle pointed at the door with his forefinger. " When Maria and Michael step together through this door, we know Maria has won. If she´s alone, Michael won".

Everybody kept an eye on the door and listened to drama unfolding behind it. The couple was still in the name calling phase and was loudly expressing what they thought of each other. The girls silently cheered for their friend while the boys hoped that their buddy wouldn´t cave in like it was usual when a pair was fighting. All of the sudden the voices outside disappeared and for seconds there was absolutely silence. Even the people in the office were holding their breath. Until a loud bang was startling all and got them in action immediately. Fastly they stormed out of the room and into the showroom from where the noise had been coming from. A little shocked they noticed a overthrown wall with pictures scattered on the floor and two embarressed people lying besides the mess. Michael almost covering Marias right side and body slight shooking.

" What did you do to my exhibit about the 1947 crash?", Larek didn´t care if they were fighting or not and who won it. But now they destroyed his work and he would need time to clear away the clutter they created.

Maria had problems keeping the corner of her mouth under control. The urge to laugh was just too great, considering the way they had to look. " You have to ask my partner that, because he was the one attacking me".

Larek turned his attention to Michael while he crossed his arms over his chest and angrily tapped his feets on the floor in a steady rhythm. His face was a mask of absolute fury and it appeared like his head wanted to explode every moment. " So! What is your explanation for this mess?".

" I´m sorry dude. I just had been too boisterous and the wall couldn´t hold on", Michael turned his body around and the others instantly knew what happened. After all he had glittery lips and part of the lip gloss had ended beneath his nose. And if that wouldn´t be evidence enough the tent in his jeans was showing what could have happened if they hadn´t been coming here.

Kyle groaned disgusted and covered his eyes with his hand. Arrggghhh, why couldn´t they behave like every other couple and exchange bodyfluids within the safety of their own rooms or maybe at a different house in a state far away. " Oh god. Can´t you people just hold back for a little and act responsible?".

Isabel snorted amused at him. " Yeah. Great words coming from someone betting on his sister".

" Hey you were betting, too!", Kyle wouldn´t just take all the blame for something that everbody was also doing. He just started the whole thing, but the others went with it, which meant he wasn´t the only one guilty here.

Maria just shook her head at her brother. He wouldn´t grow up in a long while with this behaviour, although she loved his slightly childish character. It always made her laugh. " And who won?".

Michael actually find the time to get his body in a standing position and held his hand out to help his girlfriend back on her feet, too. Then he waved his hand over the chaos and brought everything in its original condition, so that his friend could finally stop with his death glare. " What was the bet about anyway?".

" About who would win the fight. You or Maria", Kyle admitted unashamedly and a little disappointed in his roommate. Damn him for losing against his sister and damn her for using her charme to get her way in everything. He could kiss his money goodbye.

Maria faced her lover with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on her face. Instantly the expression was replied from him and without a word they both turned their backs on their friends and walked calmly to the office again.

Kyle glanced around in the confused faces of the others. What had been going on here? Did he miss something? Quickly he went after his sister and her boyfriend. " Hey. Don´t just walk away from us. We want to know who won".

" Nobody. Because this wasn´t a fight. It had just been a little discussion, which we cleared", Michael threw over his shoulder all the while keeping a steady pace. Damn all this people in his life and the stupid fake wall for leading him to the conclussion that it was safe to lean on it.

Maria meanwhile smiled at the mention of their "discussion". It had been pretty harsh at first and they both screamed things that would have hurt other people. But then something changed and the air started to prickle with energy. The more they let their anger out, the more aroused they both become. Until Michael couldn´t contain himself any longer and pounced on her. Unfortunately the wall behind them hadn´t withstand their weight and crashed with a loud noise to the ground. " Let´s look how much money they were betting and who bet on who"

Michael liked the idea and quickly watched over his back at the others following them. Kyle was the only one close enough to see what they would be doing. So with a little flick of his wrist he let his roommate trip over his own feet and fall on the floor. After he heard the loud cursing, he pushed Maria quickly in the office and closed the door behind them. " And?".

" Aha, found it", Maria snatched up the piece of paper lying on Kyle´s chair and read over it. " The pot is 100 dollars. 6 People placed on me and just 4 on you".

Michael couldn´t believe that. He obviously had misheard what his girlfriend had been trying to tell him. No, that couldn´t be true. With a slight perplexed expression he step closer to her and took the paper out of her hand. He looked at the bets and the names behind it. Damnit. " Larek, that little bastard. He betted on you instead of me. Just wait until I get my hands on him".

Just in that moment the others decided to grace them both with their presence again. Kyle was furious glowering at his roommate and what he thought had been a friend. Jerk had made him fall and almost break something. Not that he hurt himself, because he was pretty resistant, but part of his ego suffered. He must have looked like Whitman when he nearly kissed the floor. Still glaring he planted his butt forcefully on his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Tess tried to comfort him by stroking his leg, all the way keeping the smile off of her face. Isabel and Alex took their places at the door and hid their amused expression behind their hands. Max and Liz were busy talking quietly to each other that they probably hadn´t even noticed the little stunt from Kyle. Corly, Hanson and Lykus just shook their heads at the younger generation. And the last one through the door was Larek, who seemed to be still a little pissed.

" Can you explain that! Why did you bet against me!", Michael stepped closer towards his friend and put the paper in front of his face.

Larek swallowed visibly and looked around for some kinda help. But everyone was staring in another direction, either in agreement with Michael or because they had done the same. Slightly sweating he turned his attention to Maria, who smiled warmly at him. " Because she´s scarier than you", to prevent some punishment afterwards he winked at her to show that he wasn´t serious. " And admit it, you are totally whipped when it comes to her".

Michael whirled around when he heard snickers behind his back. Sending them all a death glare he slumped on the nearest chair and acted insulted. Although he knew it was true sometimes, he wouldn´t ever admit it to anyone, at least of all to his friends. " I´m not whipped. Alex and Max maybe. And definitely Kyle. But not me".

" Stop it. We don´t have time for this now", Maria interfered just in time. She already saw her brother starting to protest and the others would have gladly joined him. But they weren´t here for fun and there were still question unanswered. Slowly she faced Larek and Corly " I think you were just in process to tell us about Khivar´s army and why my ex lover, who I thought was playing against us is suddenly an ally".

Lykus finally walked away from his place at the wall and went towards his great love. He hadn´t been lying about his feelings for her in either lifes, he really loved her more than anything. But he had accepted that he wasn´t the one she wanted and needed. " I can tell you the reason for my change of heart. It is remorse".

Maria wrinkled her forehead. What could the scumbag have to regret? Treating her like some piece of shit maybe? Or the way he made her feel like she was the one treating him badly? Or was it that he had been dumb enough to piss her off? " And what could possibly cause you to feel something? I mean to have remorse you have to have a heart, don´t you think?"

" Don´t talk like that about me. I´m not Nicolai. I loved you and I still do and part of me probably always will. But I let rage overpower me and do the most aweful thing a person can do", Lykus relived the faithful day every night since it happened and it still pained him to see the arrow going through Mariannas head. Every night he saw her slumping lifeless on the ground and bleeding all over her lover. After he almost went crazy because of his nightmares, he offered his help to Larek and Nolak. He didn´t expect them to take his offer, he just wanted everything to stop and he knew they would do it. Either with letting him help them or kill him. Unfortunately they choose the harder path for him. " I´m the one that killed you and there´s not a day I don´t regret it or suffer for doing it".

At that Michael jumped to his feet and put his body protectively in front of his girlfriend. Within seconds Kyle was at his side and both you men lifted their fist in case the bastard tried to something silly, like hurting Maria. Although the chances that something like that happened were slim to none, because Lykus wouldn´t hurt her and the room was full of her friends, who wouldn´t hesitate to kill him without flinching.

Larek barged between the males and their little testosterone battle. He didn´t fully trust Mariannas ex lover himself, but he had been a great help so far. He was working for both sides and provided them with facts they needed. In return they didn´t kill him. " Guys. Do you think I would put him in the same room as Maria if I would known that he could hurt her in any kind? Have some faith in me, even if you don´t have any in him. He´s our spy and he gets the inside scoop from the enemy first hand. We need him for now".

" Whatever. But if he as much as move a wrong finger I will blast him into million tiny pieces without thinking twice", Michael relaxed his stance slightly, but he was still keeping an eye on Lykus. As much as he wanted to believe his friend, he couldn´t. Not when it involved Marias life. However he would play nice for the time being. Until he had a good reason to kill the wanker.

Lykus glanced steadily at Michael and he saw Rath in those eyes staring back at him. So much that it was almost scary, because they both looked different. The same rage about touching his property and the same madness. In a normal life he would swear those were the eyes of a psychopath. " Oh yeah. Do you think if I had really wanted to kill her, I would have done it already? I had enough possibilies and I had been intimate with her, which means I could have killed her without her knowing what was happening until it would have been too late".

Michael lunged forward to rip the head off of that damn motherfer. But thankfully he was hindered by Maria and Kyle, who were holding him at his arms and prevented him from doing something stupid. If Larek thought they would need Lykus, they had to believe him and forget their anger. They all were on the same side, until they had proof it wasn´t like that. Then they could still deal with problem.

" Michael! Keep yourself together. He´s not worth it get your hands dirty. Be the smart on and ignore him", Maria whispered in his ear soothingly. She always had been having a talent to settle Rath´s inner beast just with a touch or her voice. Nobody knew how she did it and in reality she herself didn´t know it either, but she could do it.

Larek saw that the crazy look disappeared from the other mans face and he was glad that Maria still the power to sooth him. " Lykus, go ahead to the base and tell everybody that we´re coming", maybe that would ease the tension completely. It was always dangerous when two alpha males clashed against each other.

Lykus rolled his eyes at the obvious booting out. Great, he had waited almost 20 years to see a teenage punk trying to play soldier and saving the world with his pissy attitude. But to spare his angel the worry, he decided to do what he got told and went without a word out the door. Everybody breathed out relieved when he disappeared and they were among themself again. Maria and Kyle even released Michael from their clutches.

" Holy crap! He´s still a creep", Isabel had been having a hard time matching the name to the face on Antar. It had taken a little longer for her to remember everything, but when she did she wished she could erase it. The guy had given her goosebumps in both lifes now.

Larek smiled in her direction. He already knew which scene she had in mind, because it had been the first pictures popping in his head, too. Besides it was the only time that they got to know Lykus. " Yeah. But we need him. If everything is over and we´re still alive, you can do with him whatever you want".

Michael clapped his hands together in anticipation. He had first dips at the guy and if he left something over, the others could fight over the rest. " That´s sounds like a plan".

" Now we should go. It´s getting late and we want to show you everything before it´s getting dark outside", Larek cleared papers from his desk and hid it in one of his drawers. Corly and Hanson helped him letting everything alien related disappear from sight and put it away where nobody would find it, in case someone was stupid enough to try to rob the UFO-Center.

The others stood up from their places and went out from the office to wait outside. Before the door closed behind them, Larek could hear Kyle. " What did he mean with if everythings is over and we´re still alive? Does he think we´re not making it out of this little adventure alive?".

**Night time**

Michael, Kyle, Tess and Maria were just coming from the underground base. They had been given the whole tour through all rooms and every spot important for them in the future. They got to know a few people and meet Nolak again. He had been in the process to train a few men, who just got there when they saw him. Everybody had been shocked about the size of the base, because it had been pretty gigantic and mighty equipped with the newest weapons and technology. And it was a surprise to see so much soldier walking around, let alone scientist and doctors. Nobody had expected so much people down there. Larek explained that most of them escaped Khivar´s reign or had to flee for their safety. Some of them even had been on earth before everything went downhilll on Antar. They were the ones creating this place under the huge rocks in the desert. In time the size got bigger, the more person came to them. It was just like a little colony with everything neccessary. They had a cafeteria, a hospital ward, a movie theatre and even a hair salon. Alex almost fainted when they discovered the computer room. He had wanted to move in there and have its babies, to which Isabel had just shook her head. Max and Liz got really excited when they saw the many scientiest and they admired the work done. They couldn´t wait to help one day. Kyle just showed interest when the came to the mess hall and the many food lined up on tables, while Tess was annoyed that it didn´t give enough healthy food, but she found out that almost just men were living here on this base, so she stopped complaining. Maria and Michael started to drool when they saw the collection of weapons and the trainings room. They even discovered their laser lying on one of the racks. The others had to use all their persuasiveness to get them out of the base actually. When they finally managed it, they had to hear all the glory details about the weapons during the ride home. And they were still in the process to tell stories, even after they finally arrived at the Valenti residence.

" I can´t believe Larek had kept Shena all this years", Maria had been wanting to take her sword with her. But her brother pointed out that their father would start to wonder if she was coming home with a deadly weapon, which she could understand. It would moot too much questions.

Michael turned to his girlfriend with a confused expression. He hoped it was not what he thought it was. " Shena? You named your sword?".

Maria looked up when she noticed that everybody was staring at her curiously. What? Why were they glancing at her like she had grown a second head. " Yeah. So what?", why was it okay for boys to name their penis, but for her it was strange that she named her sword. Besides it was an antarian name and it meant fellow, because it had been given her to protect her.

" You are really a strange one", Michael kissed his girlfriend quickly. That was actually the reason why he fell in love with her in the first place. She wasn´t like any other girl he ever meet in his life, well in both lifes.

Kyle cleared his throat loudly to let the other two know that they were still present. All right, he had to admit he already got used to this kissing thing with his sister, but that didn´t mean that he liked it. " Cut it out. I´m tired and just want to crash in my bed. But unfortunately I have no keys".

Tess, who looked like she was more asleep than awake, dragged her boyfriend at the door and opened it. She just laid her hand over the look and within seconds they could enter the house. They both immediately steered in the direction of the stairs and with that the bedrooms. It had been a long day for them.

Michael and Maria laughed quietly about the sissies while they carefully followed their siblings up. Just before they made it to the stairs, Jim came out from the kitchen and walked towards them.

" Hey Dad. We were just in the process to get sleeping".

Jim´s expression was unreadable and it scared Maria. Her father was making her nervous with his glance. " I have to talk to you", he let his gaze wander to Michael. " Alone".

Maria´s heart started pounding at that. Her instinct told her that it wouldn´t be a pleasant talk. Oh god, hopefully it wasn´t about the incident from last night. Maybe someone had seen something and told him something. " What is it?".

" You will find out. I´m waiting in the kitchen for you", Jim turned around and calmly went away.

Michael stared worriedly after the older mans back. That hadn´t sounded so good, not good at all. " You don´t think it has something to do with us, do you?".

Maria breathed deeply out before facing him. She was trying to calm down or else she would probably blow her cover by destroying something in the house. Besides she didn´t want to appear guilty. Maybe it was just a small thing and nothing to worry about. Yeah right. Nothing in her life was easy anymore. Why should it be different with her family. " Only way to find out", and without looking at Michael she marched through the hall toward her destination. When she stepped over the threshold, she was immediately assaulted with an angry glare from her father.

" Sit down", he pointed at the chair he had reserved for her. He himself kept in a standing position while he waited until his daughter was sitting. " You know I thought we had a really good relationship and we could talk about everything. I mean I always thought we had this special bond with each other, not just Father and daughter, but friends".

Maria´s heart started to ache. She always thought the same, but she knew that there were limits. Things she couldn´t tell her father, although she wanted to. " That´s still like that. Nothing had changed".

Jim put his hands on the table and stared at his daughter. She was lying to him since she was old enough to talk. He had tried to be understanding, because he thought she was scared to tell him about her uniqueness. But his patience had a boundary and it had been overstepped. " Really. Than why do I have the feeling you keep secrets from me and I´m not just talking about last night".

" I don´t know what you mean. What do you want to hear from me?".

Jim went to the counter nearest him and took something from it. Then he threw it on the kitchen table and watched the reaction from his daughter carefully. " I want an explanation for this".

Maria looked at the folder in front of her and her heart stopped beating for a moment, her face lost all the color and she was close to lose her food. In front of her were lying her x-ray, the matching report and the destroyed uniform from Liz when she had been shot years ago.

TBC


	53. Chapter 53

**Thanx to RedJewel2662 for sticking to this story for such a long time.**

**Chapter 51 A hard choice and an old face**

Maria slowly stretched her hand out and took the folder. She looked through the content and found the report from the shooting in the Crashdown. Immediately she regnorized the handwriting of her father. She read over what he had written about the incident with a shaking hands. Strangly not one word was standing in there about the obvious lie the two girls had dished up. But why else would he keep the blood soaked uniform from Liz then? She figured it out when she noticed that there was another page with a result about the stain on the cloth Sheriff Valenti sent in. In big fat letters stood there that it was human blood. " Why do you have all this? Do you snoop after me, or what?".

" No. But I want to protect my daughter from the wrong people", Jim tried another tactic. He didn´t wanna scare his daughter away. He just wanted her to trust in him, so that he could help her in any way, especially after the severe injury she sustained last night, which was something to worry over.

Maria pushed the folder away from her and stood up to face her father. Great, the last thing she needed was her family on her back at the moment. Like her life didn´t suck enough already. " And I want you to back off this. Believe me it´s better for you to not know anything. If you value our father-daughter relationship, stop asking me question I can´t answer you".

Jim noticed the slight fear in her eyes, but she wasn´t afraid for herself. Instantly realisation hit him and pretty hard. The accident with Lindsey was not just some guy trying to force himself on some innocent girl. There was more behind it than that. " If your life or the life of another member of this family is in danger, I have to know it. You know you always can count on me".

" I know that, Dad. But this time you just have to trust me. If I need your help I´ll ask", Maria was glad that her father stopped hassling her, but she knew that this discussion was far from over. She didn´t want something to stand between them and it was obvious that no matter what she told him he would accept it. However even if she wanted to tell her father the truth she didn´t want to put him in danger.

Jim wondered when his daughter started to grow up so fast. The last time he saw her she had been his little girl and now there was a maturity in her eyes that transcended her age. Like another person was staring at him. " Does it have anything to do with the fact that you´re different?".

Maria´s eyes widened for a second before she could catch herself again and mask her fear. Now the urge to run away was so big that she had to put every strength she possessed in keeping her cool and stay right on this seat. " Different? How do you mean?".

" Don´t play dumb with me. I´m maybe old, but I´m not blind. I know that you are not just some ordinary girl, that you have powers not from this earth".

Maria rubbed her face tiredly. She was so sick of fighting with people today. All she ever wanted was to be like anybody else and not be some kinda freak. Now she was punished because she wasn´t normal and she couldn´t even blame someone else for that. She had been the one activating this stupid plan in the first place. She had been a real genius in her past life. " Since when do you know about me?".

Jim finally took a seat across from his daughter. He knew that it had taken a lot from her to go this step towards her father, even if wondered why she hadn´t done it years ago. " Since you were a child", he smiled shortly at the memory. " Hard to miss when your little daughter destroys the good china vase from her mother with just a sneezer. Or when she burns her hand on the hotplate and within seconds the injuries are gone".

" Why didn´t you say anything? You could have spared me years of worrying about you finding out that I´m a freak", Maria felt like a huge weight was lifted off her. If she would do a drink she would do it right now. Something that almost burned a whole in your stomach.

Jim shook his head relieved. He finally found the access to his daughter again, something he thought he lost forever. But thankfully he said the right words at the right time for once. Amy would be really proud of him right now. " Firstly, you´re not a freak. You´re my daughter powers or not. And secondly. I wanted to wait until you were ready to tell it me personally, which you never did".

Maria was glad to hear that her father didn´t think differently about her and for the first time she felt the connection with him again, which had occasionally happened in the last years because of her secret. Now it was like old times, when she just sat down with him and talked about everything and nothing. " Does Mum know something?".

" Of course! She saw your pink elephant floating through the living room towards your outstretched hand and she almost fainted from the shock. I had to convince her that you weren´t possessed and we didn´t need to call an exorcist", Jim still remembered the expression on his wifes face, the panic and the fear. But after the first shock was gone, she accepted the gift her daughter had and used it sometimes for her benefit, such as lifting heavy things or healing small cuts and bruises.

Maria laughed openly. She could exactly picture her mother getting all hysterical and screaming around. It must have been priceless to witness. " Weren´t you ever afraid of me? I mean it´s not usual that a person can do such things like me".

Jim bent forward with his torso and put his hand on his daughters right cheek. The look in his eyes was speaking of love and pride. " Why should I be afraid of you? You´re my daughter, my child. No matter what should happen I will always be your father. After all you came out of my loins".

" Oh Dad, that´s really nasty. Now I will have nightmares for weeks", Maria grimaced like she had just eaten something disgusting. Great, her favourite image for the next days to come. Tonight she probably dreamed about it. Her father could be so icky sometimes.

Jim chuckled at his angel. He just wanted to lighten the mood a little, because now he would be shooting with the important bullets. But he knew that a direct approach would get him nowhere with his daughter. She could be stubborn like a mule, a trait she picked up from her mother. " So, what have you done today? I saw the jetta in front of the UFO-Center".

Maria was aware that her father didn´t just her this question without reason and he sucked at small talk or trying to bring up a topic without being to obvious. " Why are you not asking me what you really want to know?".

" I don´t know what you mean. I just want to know what you´ve done. We didn´t have exactly time to really talk with each other the last few days", Jim cursed himself for getting his cover blown. He was usually good in an interrogation. He could get his answers from criminals without them knowing how much they revealed to him. It was the first thing he learned in his time as Deputy. But now he either was getting old or his daughter finally figured him out.

Maria leaned back in her chair and stared at her father hard and long. She was deciding to either play along in his game or to checkmate him. One look at the clock over the door however was telling her that she should come straight to the point. " All right. How about we put all our cards on the table? You ask me your questions and I will answer them as good as I can".

Jim watched his daughter for a moment. He still saw her as his little daughter with her fairy costume and the small glitter wand. He didn´t know if he liked her new version that much. She seemed to lack the joy and the laughter she always had. It was like all the good things had been sucked out of her. " Okay", he rubbed his chin while he thought which question he wanted answered first. He was so full of them that he didn´t know where to start. " Are you in danger?".

" No. Not at the moment", Maria was glad that she could be honest in that matter, because she knew that there would be things coming she couldn´t possibly answer honestly.

Jim was glad to hear that, at least he could stop worrying in this regard, although the last part was not so good. But now that he knew about her, she would tell him if it would change and she was in trouble. " What are you? Phsychic or is it something completely different?".

Maria sighed inwardly. She already expected this question and she had feared it. How could she answer this without bringing her father in danger? Or would it be better if he was in the known about everything and could act if something should go down? " Let´s just say something in the middle". It wasn´t exactly a lie and pretty vague.

" Why are you evading this question? Why don´t you tell me direct what you are?", Jim was so sick to be lied to or get blank answers. Both of his children had lived a life beyond their parents backs. But after the accident in which his daughters got hurt, he wouldn´t longer look away and let them do what they wanted, as long as it wasn´t illegal or dangerous.

Maria stood up from her chair and started to pace. She should have known that her father wouldn´t just accept the anwers he got from her. Of course he had to make a lot of fuss about it. Sometimes she hated that he was the sheriff and tried his tactics with his own children. " And why can´t you just leave everything like it is. I don´t want you or Mum to get dragged into this, all right. I´m afraid to lose my family again. I saw everything going down once and I don´t want to see it happen again".

Jim jumped to his feet when he saw the glassy eyes of his daughter. Immediately he put himself in her path and grasped her shoulders to stop her from pacing. " What do you mean again? Did you see something?".

" Please Dad, just drop it. Maybe someday I´ll tell you anything you want to know. But until then you just have to trust me. I won´t let anything happen to you", Maria hadn´t enough strenght to fight with her father. She was so damn tired, emotionally and physically. The day finally took its toll on her and she just wanted to crash in her bed and snuggle a little with Michael.

Jim pulled his daugher closer and embraced her lovingly. He didn´t want to hurt her in any kind. But he feared that he would get a call someday that Maria was lying somewhere, dead. The x-rays were proof of this fear. He had been so damn close to lose her last night and it frightend him to not know what attacked her or how he could help. " All right. But promise me that you tell me if you should need my help".

Maria smiled through the few tears leaking from her eyes. The part of Marianna was in state of total bliss. She never had been having this tight bond with Khivar. But when she thought about everything, she had been having a special connection with Hewik, who had been her real father. He had been always around her, talked to her, calmed her down or just huged her when she was sad. Strange that she had never noticed it until now. " I promise. First sign of danger I´ll call you".

" I´ll take you at your word", Jim looked in his daughters face and saw the tear streakes. Carefully he wiped them away with his thumbs. " Now go to bed".

Maria kissed his cheek before she walked out of the kitchen. Her steps where a bit lighter this time, because she knew that she had the his back if anything should go wrong. On her way up the stairs she almost crashed into her mother, who seemed to be going to her father. Just with a quiet good night both women went in different directions.

Amy stepped into the kitchen and saw her husband leaning at the counter. After his appearance the talk with Maria hadn´t gone like he expected it. Or he got what he wanted and it wasn´t quite what he thought. " How was your father-daughter bonding?".

" It had been interesting. But she´s more guarded than me. Something makes her afraid for our safety, so much that she even fears telling me anything about it", Jim was torn between having faith in his teenage daughter and keep his nose out of her business or follow his intstincts and pursue his own investigations. It was hard, because he didn´t want to lose Marias trust in him, but he wanted to keep his daughter out of trouble, too.

Amy went to him and soothingly stroked his back. He had been worried since his children left the house to go to college. Now after the little visit to the hospital had boosted his fears of losing one of his children. Especially Maria. They both always had been having a tight connection with each other. It had been sometimes like they were in their own little world and nobody outside was allowed to go in. Just the two of them. " And how do you want to solve this?".

Jim turned to his wife and looked into her eyes. It was always so calming to do that. Besides it was nice to glance at someone and really know what the person was thinking or what they appeared to be was really what they were. " I can´t do nothing. If Maria is in trouble I want to be there for her. Maybe I will look into a few records and see what I can find about this Nicholas. Something tells me he had something to do with all this".

" If you do that, you can kiss your relationship with your daughter goodbye".

Jim drew his attention to the night sky outside. He was aware of this and as much as it would kill him, it was something he had to do. " I´d rather lose my relationship with her than lose my child".

Amy followed the sight of her husband and hoped that it wouldn´t come to that. She hoped it for the both of them.

**Two days later**

Everybody was back again at college and most of them were glad about that fact. Although the last day at home had been pretty quiet, which had been because they were too busy with packing their bags and collect their freshly washed clothes, they were happy to be in their dorms and have something stable to concentrate on. Maria had already informed the others about her talk with her father and they were all relieved to hear that they had help if they needed it and that the FBI didn´t get their hands on her oddly looking record. Kyle took this all in with a touch of happiness, because he didn´t need to lie to his father anymore and with a touch of confusion. Tess was just glad that she was back in college and could concentrate on something other than learning news things about her past life, while Michael was still a little thrown by all the information he got. He talked to Maria about everything and yet there were things he didn´t understand exactly, such as why the curse involved him when this goddess had been punished for her sins? Why just the five of them could save Antar? And how on earth they should do it when they couldn´t even fool the humans? Larek told them much about the base and their future assignment. But at some point he had been shutting his brain off and now he was clueless in a few things. But he already intented to talk to Nolak at their next training lesson. Isabel was joyful, because she had prove that she hadn´t been cursed and not at fault for the death of her family. Alex was still dreaming about the electronic equipment from Brody and his guys. He already had reserved a seat when they would come to the base permanently. Max and Liz seemed to be the only ones in the bunch not affected from it. That was probably because they were walking on clouds since they "cemented" their relationship. Besides everybody else was worrying, so why should they do it, too. Especially when they couldn´t do anything at the moment anyway. What was the point of concerning themself with a problem that was out of their grasp? It didn´t change anything and just made one crazy or paranoid. So that was the reason why Max and Liz were sitting across from each other at the huge library at their second day in class without a care in the world and learned for a small test in biology while they played footsie under the heavy brown woodtable. Besides them Alex and Isabel pretended to read books, although it was obvious that neither of them could answer the question if somebody should ask them what the books had been about. Kyle and Tess were farther in the back at the science section and tried to make out without getting caught in the process and without making too much noise. Thankfully the high bookcases were hiding them broth pretty much and they were at the aisle with the most dusted books, so there was a small chance for them at getting caught. Michael and Maria occupied the last two computer to do a little research in the internet. They were sitting opposite each other and neither of them seemed to know what the other was looking for. Obviously, because they were searching for the same thing. The city plan of Copper Summit, the location where Nicolai and his followers were.

Suddenly Kyle took a seat besides his sister and saw the strange thing on the monitor. " What are you looking at? Some porn?".

" Yeah. Do you see this stickman. He tries to ride this strickman", Maria pointed at lines crossing screen. Okay, not anybody could read a map, especially not her. But at least she could regnorize one when she saw it.

Kyle bent closer to it and finally registered what it was. " What? I don´t see that. I just see streetnames and buildings. Why are you looking at a city plan of Copper Summit anyway?".

Maria looked around to see if somebody heard him. She didn´t know who was listening. After the few days at home she thougt it was better to be careful. It wasn´t always safe for them, even if it appeared to be like that. Thankfully everybody was busy with doing their own things that they didn´t pay attention to them. But despite that she leant towards her brother and started to whisper. " You know why? Nicolai is there and we maybe need the location of the whole area. It´s better to be prepaid".

" Why are you whispering?", Kyle replied quietly and slightly confused. They were pretty much among themself here and the others had probably better things to do than listening to their conversation.

Maria knew that her brother didn´t grasp the concept of laying low and keeping up appearance. To his defence he never had to know about it or learn it out of necessarily like her. She had been drilled about being careful all the time and never let your guard down from childhood. " You never know if the enemy is near you or not. Therefore I would suggest we create codewords for a few things. Maybe you and Tess can think about some and tell us them tonight".

Kyle noticed that his sister wanted him away from her and do her thing alone. All right, he didn´t need to stay where he wasn´t welcome anymore. Just as he was in the process to stand up he saw that there was a message on the computer. " You´ve got a message", then he left.

Maria turned to her screen and glanced at the little envelope blinking down at the right side of the monitor. Curiously she double klicked on it with her mouse. Immediately a window opened over the whole screen and she read over it.

" _Hey beautiful. I´m watching you right now and I had to write how incredible sexy you are. I´m already hard just by watching your tight body sitting on the chair. At the moment I imagine you naked and wrapped around me"_

Maria put her hands on her heating cheeks and scanned the surrounding. She didn´t want anybody to read what she received. Oh crap, now Michael wanted to check a new game, here in the middle of the library with all of their friends around? Boy was she enjoying that. So she decided to play right along.

" _Hey stud. I´m really flattered for stimulate your imagination that much and it´s making me really hot to think about the things you are doing to me in your mind. I´m also fantasizing about things I want you to do to me. Like throwing me against a wall and taking me without mercy. No foreplay, no talking and no boundaries, just straight to the point" _

Giggling like a school girl who did something illegal, she hit the send button. Then she waited for a reply. This boy was surprising her everyday with things, she didn´t even think about. Maybe that was the reason for the eternal attraction between them, that even survived time and space. Just as the thought finished she saw the envelope blink again.

" _Oh damn girl, you almost made me cum in my pants. You´re really naughty, you should be punished for your dirty little mind. Maybe I should spank your cute ass for a bit before soothing the heating flesh with my long and velvet tongue. Or I could tease you so long until you would beg for release"_

Maria rubbed her neck at that. Holy shit, was it getting hot in here or was it just her? Slowly she took the pencil in her mouth to think about a good reply. She already knew he was watching and she wanted to give him some eye candy. Suddenly a perfect comeback popped into her head.

" _I´m not the kind of girl who begs for something. Usually it is the other way around and because I´m a good person I grant them release. I ride them until their legs buckle and their eyes roll up. If I´m still in the mood I tease them so long that they pop like warm champagne under me. I´ve got muscle that you never thought existed and I can do things with it that most people just dream about"_

Quickly she sent the message away. She was still afraid that somebody could notice anything and think she was pervert or strange. But after a quick look around, she saw that Kyle and Tess had already disappeared in their science section, probably trying to undress each other again or something, Max and Liz seemed to be learning while Alex and Isabel finally gave up to read the books and were talking to each other. Grinning she stretched her head to the side to see Michael´s face when he saw what she wrote to him. Strangly it was appearing like he was concentrating on something on the monitor. All right, if he could keep his cool, she would do it, too. Excited she looked at the screen and saw the she got message.

" _If you don´t stop now I have to do something drastic, like jumping to my feet, walk over to you and take you right in this room with all this people around. I would rip your clothes from your body and ram my dick as far as it could go in your tight wet pussy. Shit, I have to stop this or I´ll really do it._

Maria wished he would really do it, because it sounded so fantastic at the moment. With everything happening the last few days they both hadn´t even time for themself, let alone time for having sex. She missed it. The way their bodies melted together, their scents joined and their hearts started beating as one. Damn it, she had to stop thinking about it or she would go crazy.

" _We have to stop this conversation or I´m exploding. It has been too long already and I start to think you lost your interest in me. Damn you Michael for making me so hot and I can´t do anything against it at the moment"._

She would slap him later for it, when she even could stand up from this chair without embarrassing herself in the process. Maybe she should wait until the puddle under her had dried up. Her nipples were painfully rubbing against her bra and she wondered if anybody would believe when she said that she was cold in a nice temperatured room. But soon her playful mood disappeared and was making place for fear. Just because of three little words shining at her.

" _Who is Michael?"_

Worriedly Maria thought for a moment that she had been talking to a stranger. But then she scraped this idea, because who would do such a disgusting thing to someone he didn´t know. It had to be Michael. He was just trying to shock her.

" _Yeah, really funny. You should do a performance with your humour. Unfortunately I don´t like this kind of joke, so I want you to stop it, alright"_

Then she waited what answer she would be getting this time. Hopefully Michael was taking her seriously and stopped with this shit. She didn´t want to think about what she should do if it really wasn´t him. That would be pretty embarressing. Nervously she saw the envelope blink and clicked on it.

" _Hey, I´m not joking. Really. I really don´t know this Michael guy. But I´m sure that it´s not me. I´m sorry if you thought I had been someone else. It wasn´t my intention to make you uncomfortable. I just_

_wanted to make contact with you._

Maria shook her head. Great now she had a sex talk with someone not her boyfriend. Was it already cheating if she had exchanged sex fantasies with another guy? Actually she had been under the impression it had been Michael, so theoretically she hadn´t cheated on him. Besides it wasn´t like they both had really done it.

" _It´s okay. But sadly I have to inform you that I´m already involved with someone and I don´t think he would be pleased about his girlfriend having computer sex with a guy not him. Sorry. _

She had to smile at forwardness of this boy. Usually she would be pissed at someone trying to hit on her so cheap, but she had to give him credit for the way he had done it. What some men did to impress a woman. Suddenly the smile on her face died when she read the next words.

" _Don´t worry about that my love. Soon you will be mine again, Marianna"_

Scared and shocked she jumped to her feet and knocked her chair over in the process. People stared at her sudden movement and some even startled through the loud clang of the chair falling on the ground. Kyle, Tess, Isabel, Alex, Max, Liz and even Michael looked up from whatever they had been doing and glanced at their pale faced friend. She meanwhile scanned the room for the scumbag that knew about her past life and found a guy hastily escape through the large doors. Without taking notice of anything around her she stormed after him. She wouldn´t make the same mistake again and go let a possible threat for her or her friends, this time she would chase him as long as she had to. Then she would kill him and ask questions later or maybe if she was in a good mood she would do it the other way around. She almost crash into two large guys coming through the door when she tried to leave the library, but thankfully she was agile enough to prevent that from happening. With a neat little trick she passed them without any problem and ran after the moving person hiding under a black baseball cap. She knew that she couldn´t use her power to stop him, because as much as she wanted it she couldn´t bring more attention to them at the moment. They barely escaped the reaching clutches of the FBI, they didn´t need the added mess. Besides there were enough people around she could hit instead of the guy. Straining her legs to go faster she pushed herself forward and noticed finally that the distance between them was getting smaller. She never knew how fast she could run when she had to. For a moment she wondered how long she could hold this tempo before her body collapsed, but then she saw her opponent slowing down a bit. Using her chance and preparing herself for inflicting a tad bit pain on herself she jumped on her target and dragged him down on the ground with her on top of him. Slightly out of breath and with hurting legs she didn´t move for a couple of seconds, because her lungs were demanding air and her legs some rest. After that she slowly stood up from the big lump on the ground and kicked him in the belly really good.

" Turn around bastard. Show yourself to me".

In slow motion the body rolled around and the guy was taking the baseball cap from his head. " Hello my love".

Maria cringed back shocked and tears were prickling her eyes. That couldn´t be. He was dead, she was there when he died. How could this be possible? What was he doing here and why hadn´t Larek said anything to her? And how did they make it that he was looking like the last time she had seen him? The same black hairs, the brown eyes and the same arrogant smirk on his face. " Rath!".

**Inside the library**

Michael, Liz, Max, Isabel, Alex, Kyle and Tess were still staring at the door where Maria had stormed out. Nobody was believing what just happened and couldn´t understand why. Curiously they all stepped to the computer she had been sitting on and observed the words blinking back at them. Slowly realisation dawn on them and they finally knew why their friend made such an hasty retreat and why she had been so pale. Immediately Tess went to the nearest window to look if she could see her somehwere, while Kyle told the other occupants of the library that everything was over. Michael was just in the process to go after his girlfriend, when his sister stopped him.

" I see her. She just jumped on a guy and threw him down".

Instantly the others crowded at the small window and the smaller ones had to strain themself to get a peak at the show. Everybody watched as Maria kicked the guy on the ground with her foot really hard. Michael was pretty proud of his girl and silently cheered her on to give him a hell of a fight, although he was wondering who this chap was and on which side he was standing. Kyle was suffering with the poor boy, if anything his sister had a nice right kick and it was painful, he had experience in that area. Tess and Liz were holding their hands in front of their eyes to not have to witness what Maria would do next, while Isabel didn´t hold back her vocal encouragement. Suddenly a cell phone started ringing somewhere and broke the attention of them.

" Uggghh. Which moron doesn´t set his cellphone on mute in a library? Never heard of vibrating alert?", Liz thought it was close to one of the ten mortal sins to make noise in the holy halls of the books. She couldn´t understand that someone would even take it along. How stupid could some people be?

Michael sheepishly took the offending noise out from his jeans pocket and grinned apologetically at her before watching on his screen. Confused he saw it was a local number and immedaitely took the call. " Hello?".

" _Michael...you´re in grave...get out...there__´s a...in there..."._

Michael pushed the others out of his way and tried to find a place where his reception was better and he actually could understand everything. He didn´t even know who was on the line from all this cracking and hissing in the line. " What? I couldn´t understand a damn thing. Who is there?".

" _Get out of the library. There is a bomb hidden somwhere!"_

Michael finally managed to understand everything and his even knew who was calling him. Unfortunately he had already found the reason for Nolak to call him so ruffled in the middle of the day. There was a green light blinking in regular intervals at the wall besides the computer tables. Quickly he turned around to the others. " Out now. There´s a bomb here"

Of course he screamed it that loud that everyone in the whole library had heard it and pretty damn quick the room was filled with cries and trampling feets. Everybody tried to get out of the building at the same time and nobody cared for the safety of the others. People fell and others walked in panic over them. Bookshelfs got thrown over, chairs knocked down and books were all over the floor. Max looked out of the window to see if it was possible to jump down without killing themself in the process or even hurt them. But there were in the second floor and under them was just solid pavement. Great, they didn´t have time to make it out the door with all the people crowded there and they couldn´t jump, because it was not safe enough.

" We´re not making it. The window is too dangerous and the door impossible to reach right now".

Michael didn´t care about that at the moment. He just wanted to find a way out to get his friends and his family out of harms way. Desperate he scanned the library for something they could use a ladder. But he came up empty. Fear was slowly climbing up his body and made his head kinda fuzzy. " We have to try to get to the damn door. We have no other option at the moment".

Max observed the panic driven teenager trying to squeeze themself through the mob of people blocking their path to safety. That way was out of the question, because before they would make it ouside they were already shredded to pieces. " That won´t work".

" Could you both stop with the bickering like an old couple. This thing will blow us up if we don´t do anything", Kyle thought it was something his sister would be saying and it brought a little comfort to him. He was almost pissing his pants with fear and he didn´t like the feeling. He took the hand of his girlfriend and made a dash for the emergency exit at the sidewall, which was also full of people trying to get out.

Alex watched after his childhood friend and made the same decision. He didn´t want to die that way and probably not now. Quickly he gripped the arms of Liz and Isabel and dragged them after Kyle. Max and Michael knew that they got outvoted and instantly followed their friends. Scared they pushed the people out of the way and were not even afraid to use their powers to throw a few of them out of their way.

Michael looked back at the bomb and noticed that the green light had stopped blinking. Oh shit, they were in deep trouble now. " Everybody down. The bomb will blow up!".

No sooner had the words died down a deafening bang was sounding through the library while girls and boys everywhere dropped on the ground. Wood and glass splinter as well as part of the furniture flew through the air and destroyed everything in sight. Bookshelfs got knocked over and fell on people lying on the floor. Pages were floating through the air and screams of pain and fear were piercing the chaos. Suddenly the ground seemed to move and dip under the weight of the many bodies. With more cries the building was quickly falling apart and falling at a dangerous pace towards the ground outside until it crashed against it with so much noise that the whole town had to hear it. At this point all the voices and cries stopped.

**Outside**

Maria was slowling coming out of her shock at seeing her former lover lying at her feet. She had so much questions she wanted to ask him and she would finally have the chance to say to him how sorry she was for causing him so much pain. But she got thrown out of her thoughts when a loud bang was sounding behind her. Startled she turned to the noise and saw the library losing part of the wall. Fire was shooting from a few places and the foundation was crumpling. Helpless she had to witness how the building collapsed in front of her eyes and dust covered her sight.

" Noooooooooooooooooooo", she tried to run to the ruins to get to her friends. But she was hindered form a strong arm keeping her prisoner. With tears in her eyes she struggled against the hold and even kicked out with her feets. But nothing was striking with her keeper. When the sound of the horn of the fire deparment pierced the air, she finally stopped fighting. Immediately the arm released her and she slumped on the ground. Crying softly she watched the mess where her friends and her brother had been. Oh god, her curse had found her again.

TBC


	54. Chapter 54

**Chapter 52 Saying goodbye to the innocence**

The inside of the library or what was left of it resembled a war zone after the army was through with it. Small fires were blazing at ripped pages, the broken bookshelfs and other equipment were mixed with bricks from the walls and most of the roof on the ground. Dust and thick smoke were hanging in the air like a heavy blanket and here and there an electric short cut flashed. At some places legs, arms or even heads were looking out from mountains of books and made aware that people had been in the building before it crashed. For a moment it appeared like a mass grave. But after the first shock was over, students started to dig their way out of their prison or helped their friends or classmates. Everywhere bookshelfs began to move or where pulled away, books got pushed off and glass splinter brushed off of clothes. General confusion meet the relieve to have survived the explosion. People eyed their limbs and touched their bodies for any injuries. Thankfully most of them just had small bruises, abrasions or bleeding wounds, sometimes even nasty goose eggs. Among all this chaos a young man was struggling to stand up from the ground. The right side of his face was red from all the blood flowing down from a wound on his head. Pretty weak on the legs he stumbled a little before he looked for his girlfriend. She had to be close to him because she had been with him when hell broke loose.

" Tess? Baby? Where are you?", Kyle put his hand on his injury, which was hurting like a bitch or maybe it was the sledge hammer beating on his head.

Slowly a hand was making its way out of a book mountain and was quickly followed from the body belonging to it. The usual blonde curls were blood stained and the beautiful face marred with scratches. The lower lip was bleeding and the left eye was swollen shut. " Oh my god. What the fk had just been happening?".

Relieved and happy Kyle bent down to save his girl from the mess around her. He was so damn glad to know that she was alive. " Are you alright?".

" If you call a headache like a heavy metal concert alright, then yes", Tess was sure that the whole wall had been falling down on her head, because it felt like someone had tried to smash it with a demolition ball. Whoa, note to herself, no direct eye contact with the light outside.

Kyle smiled at her while he pulled her towards him and gave her the biggest kiss ever. As long as she had breath to complain about things, she was fine. He never would have thought that he would be glad when he heard someone nagging one day, especially his girlfriend. " I´m so relieved that nothing happened to you".

Tess finally noticed the pretty nasty gash on her boyfriends head. Tenderly she stroked over it and tried to wipe the blood away. Thankfully it looked much worse than it was really, it wasn´t deep or big. He would survive it. " Yeah, me too", she let her gaze wander around them and eyed the destruction there. The picture was too gruesome to put into words. They could all be glad to be alive, because after the looks of it the crash had been pretty dangerous. Worriedly she detected that she couldn´t see her friends. " Where is my brother? Isabel and the others?".

" We will look for them. I´m sure they´re alright", at least he hoped that. After he surveyed the scene a little he was shocked to see that they were standing in a heap of ruins. The chances that everybody had survived was slim, although it appeared like most of the students could walk out on their own feets. A few had to be supported from friends. But it wasn´t assessable how many people were still buried under all this mess.

Tess held onto the hand of her boyfriend while they search for their missing friends. Here and there they had to be careful, because it wasn´t exactly safe to walk around. " Michael! Isabel! Where are you?! Alex! Liz! Max! Say something or make yourself noticeable at least!".

Suddenly Kyle stepped on something soft and that earned him a strangled sound. Startled he looked down and regnorized a hand peaking out from a bookshelf. He knew this hand, because he just knew one boy who was owner of a Star Wars Stormtrooper watch. Quickly he dropped to his knees. " Hey buddy. Are you still alive?".

" No man. I don´t think I made it", came the muffled reply instantly from the ground.

Kyle almost started crying when he heard the voice from his childhood friend. He and Tess immediately started to pull the bookshelf up and threw it aside, trusting that they wouldn´t hurt anybody else in the process. Then they cleared the bricks and books away. Seconds later they saw Alex lying on the ground. His face was strangly unharmed, except for two scratches on his cheek. His head didn´t seem to be bleeding or was hurt otherwise. But return his lower region had been not so lucky. His right leg was hurt pretty bad and blood was flowing freely from it. The jeans at the place was torn and revealed the ripped flesh. " Dude, don´t pull such a stunt again. Here I thought you were severe injured".

Alex just lifted his left hand and showed his friend the middle finger. If he could he would stand up and kick his ass. But he was afraid to move, he fell pretty hard on his back and he wanted to be sure that he didn´t break anything. " Eat my shorts, butthead".

" No not today, maybe next time we survive an explosion", Kyle was already mulling over how they could stop the blood flow and how they would get their friend out of there. There was just a small chance that Alex was able to walk out with his hurt leg, which meant they had to drag him. But with all this clutter lying around, it would be difficult.

Tess meanwhile had finally decided to take action and was already in the process to ripped off a part from her white designer t-shirt. Then she she took a chair leg from the destruction and kneeled besides the unjured man. " Can you move your legs?".

Alex looked from her to his friend, who was shooting worried glances at his feets. Alarmed he tried to move his legs what brought him just more pain and he screamed really loud. Slightly sweating he turned to the girl besides him again. " Can´t you use your mumbo jumbo and take away the pain?".

" I´m sorry. But I don´t have that ability. But I will try to be as careful as I can. I promise", Tess looked up at her boyfriend and told him with her eyes that he should keep his friend company while she tended the wound. As soon as Kyle started talking about something silly, she took care of the rest. Slowly she shredded the jeans a little more and shove it upwards, so that she had enough place to do her thing. With shaking hands she put the chair leg on the inside of his leg and then tied the small scrap around it. Unfortunately her construction didn´t hold like she thought it would and she had to rip another part from her t-shirt. After that the selfmade bandage was sitting in place. " So, I´m done. Is everything alright so far?".

Kyle looked back at his girlfriend and viewed what she had done. He was pretty impressed what she had managed under this condition. He couldn´t resist and smile at her proudly. " You did good. Now help me bring him back on his feets. We have to look for the others".

Tess went immediately to the other side of the lanky teen and gripped his shoulders with both arms. Together they pulled Alex up and supported his body with their strength. With slow and controlled steps the three made their way towards the exit. Relieved they heard the sirenes of the fire departement and the ambulance. Help was on the way and soon they could rest while their wounds would be treated.

" Oh my god Alex! What happened to you?", Liz and Max turned up, pretty much unharmed and very clean. It appeared like they had made it outside in the nick of time after all. But at closer looking, everybody saw a fine sheen of dust on their clothes.

Alex grinned despite his dilemma at being carried. He wanted to look like a hero in front of his friends, although he was glad that he had the excuse of a hurt leg, because he didn´t trust his legs to hold his weight right now. They felt like jello. " Oh you know, I went against a bookshelf and it won. But it´s no biggie".

Max glanced at the three faces and he noticed two people were still missing. One being his sister and the other was Michael. Concerned he scanned the ruins. " Where are the others?".

" No clue. We went looking for them, but then we found Alex and we thought it was more important to save private Ryan. But if you want to take our wounded here, we continue our search", Kyle was more than willing to pass his friend to the brain twins. They were looking relative all right and they seemed to have more strength than him. Besides Alex was heavier than he appeared. Damn, his pal should finally stop eating all this junk food.

Liz was instantly at their side and took over for Tess, who was looking more pale than a few minutes ago. She had to be losing too much blood through her headwound. " Hey Kyle, why don´t you search alone. I think your girlfriend needs medical treatment".

Kyle slung the arm of his friend over Max shoulder and then went to Tess. Worriedly he took her face in his hands and glanced in her eyes. Oh oh, that was so not good. " Baby, what is it?".

" I´m not feeling well", just as this sentence was finished Tess dropped like a stone to the ground. Thankfully Kyle had quick reflexes and could catch her before she could have hurt herself more. In a flash he had lifted her in his arms and made his way outside.

Max and Liz watched after him with confused expressions. Shouldn´t they look for their missing companions? In that moment a few men of the fire department stepped through the place where there had been a door before. They wore their uniforms and maskes, some of them even had an axe in their hands. One of the men came towards them and eyed their hurt friend.

" Do you need help?".

Max shook his head at the man. They would just make it to get Alex out of here. Luckily he discovered a new power, which had protected him and Liz from the falling objects. He could built a protective shield around him and the person in contact with him. " It´s okay. But we miss two of our friends. They have to be here somewhere".

The fireman looked at the mess. He was sure that if the person didn´t walk out, he or she hadn´t survived the explosion. But he saw the concerned expression on the young faces and he swallowed his instinct to be honest. " Don´t worry about that. We´ll find them and bring them out. Just get out of here".

" Thank you", Max turned to Liz and saw her looking at the place where they had been watching her best friend jumping at the guy she had been chasing. He knew what went through her head right now and he wanted to calm her. " Maria is fine. Believe me, if someone could kick somebodies ass it´s her".

Liz sighed loudly before facing her boyfriend. He was right, Maria was capable to defend herself. But that didn´t make her worry less. Especially after everything they learned the last few days. " I know".

Alex had finally enough to hang around like a sack of potatoes. Besides the shock was slowly ebbing away and his leg started to hurt pretty bad now. " Hello! Can we get out of here. I need a doctor and lots of painkillers".

" Yeah. Sorry".

Max and Liz carefully stepped over the debris and made sure that they didn´t walk over someone or set foot on something that could hurt them. After a pretty exhausting climbing and hiking tour through the mess that had been the library, the three were greeted from a huge crowd around campus. People were observing the spectacel, police officers tried to control the curious mass and paramedics were treating injured students. Further in the back Reporters and cameramen from local television stations were waiting for the chaos to die down so that they could get their interviews. Meanwhile they reported from far away and hoped they could get a good picture for the tv.

Liz was shocked about the whole fuss. She never had seen such a amount of people at one place and she was attending the annual Crash Festival in Roswell, where freaks and locals met and celebrated the day of the famous UFO crash. " Holy shit!".

" You can say that again", Alex felt like a celebrity with all the people standing around and watching the firemen doing their work. Great, just his luck that he would be in tv and looking like a dork with hanging between the lovesick pair.

Finally a paramedic discovered them eyeing their surrounding and immediately went towards them. " Bring your friend over there to the other wounded".

Max glanced at the pointed spot and noticed a long line of unjured people lying on the ground. Some were treated already, some waited to get treated and others were in the process to get treated. Relieved he and Liz steered their friend in the direction and laid him down besides a boy with a nasty head wound. " Thank god. A few more minutes and my shoulder would have fallen off".

" Hey! Do you imply that I´m fat?", Alex was glad to be out in safety and still alive. And it was nice to lie on something that didn´t poke him in the back all the time. If a doctor would come and gave him a pill for his pain he would be perfect.

Liz slumped besides her friend and groaned. Her body was throbbing at strange places and she felt like she had climbed the Mount Everest with all her friends on her shoulders. Maybe the adrenalin was gone and now she felt the strain of carrying Alex around. " No, but it was pretty hard to manhandle you out of the building and that has nothing to do with your weight".

Alex looked from her to Max, who was sitting on his other side and was scanning their surroundings. He better be ready to apologize. Man, where was the doctor with the meds? Damn, how long did it take to patch some people up? " It wasn´t a pleasure for me, too".

" Oh my god. I´m so glad to see you", Isabel stormed towards them without a scratch or some other injury. She was looking like she did before, absolute perfect. Well except for the worried expression on her face. " I already imagined the worst".

Instantly Max jumped to his feet and embraced his sister relieved. He had been so concerned about her. He was happy that it was for nothing. " Where have you been? We searched for you".

Isabel wiped a few tears from her face. She had seen the building crash and she knew that whoever was still in there wouldn´t survive it. Then she noticed that nobody of her friends were with her and she feared that they were all dead. " I thought you were behind me and pushed my way through the crowd. I think I hurt a few people in the process".

" Don´t worry about them. We´re just glad that nothing happened to you", Max breathed easier now. At least he knew that all his friends and his sister were alive and healthy. Well, at least they were alive, because Alex, Tess and Kyle had been at the receiving end and didn´t get off so lightly.

Now Isabel finally saw her boyfriend lying on the ground and the weird bandage on his leg. Worriedly she kneeled besides him and eyed him thoroughly. " Oh baby. What happened to you?".

Alex forgot for a moment his pain and enjoyed that someone showed a little sympathy for him. Yeah, he needed it and he would savor it as long as it lasted. " I wanted to save a girl from a falling beam and pushed her away. Unfortunately the beam hit me instead and almost destroyed my leg".

" Oh you´re so brave", Isabel bent over him and gave him a quick kiss. " Did a paramedic already look after you?".

Alex would have felt like a damn king, if his leg wouldn´t hurt like someone was trying to chop it off with a spoon. Ok, the story was a lie and he was just hit from a falling bookshelf. But he didn´t want to come off as a loser in front of his girls eyes, even if she didn´t put too much value on that. " No. I´m still waiting for someone to find the time to check my wounds".

Isabel lifted her head and let her glance curve over the whole chaos of running people, ambulances driving away with blinking lights and blaring horns, wounded person looking for their friends and firemen trying to keep everything under control. But she couldn´t see a damn paramedic close by. Making a decision she turned back to Alex. " I will see what I can do about that. There has to be a doctor here somewhere. Be right back".

" Poor bastard. When my sister is through with him, I don´t think he´still be able to do anything", Max watched Isabel searching the crowd. She wouldn´t give up until someone would look after Alex, lucky bastard. And that after telling this tale about saving a girls life.

Liz meanwhile hadn´t heard anything her boyfriend said. She was too busy with observing the rescue mission near the building. Obviously they found a boy in there, still alive but pretty hurt. He was unconcious and hadn´t responded to anything they did. Possibility of head trauma or worse. Suddenly she gasped loudly when she saw who was lying on the stretcher. " Max. They found Michael. He looks bad. Really bad".

Max turned to the place his girlfriend pointed and was shocked to see his friend in this shape. Shit, shit, shit. He was already in the process to walk over there and check what he could do for his friend, when he realized that Kyle and Tess had beat him to it. They both went briskly besides the paramedics in the direction of the nearest ambulance. Within seconds they were gone.

" You don´t think he won´t make it?", Liz would be devasteted if something would happen to Michael and Maria was not there with him.

Max felt fear slowly climbin up his stomach and trying to choke him. He didn´t know anything at the moment. But he had known Rath and he wouldn´t let himself defeat so easily. He would fight until the end. If the same went for Michael was doubtful. " I don´t know".

Liz sat down besides her friend again and put her face on her knees. Michael was hurt pretty bad, Maria went missing, Alex could lose his leg and they almost died. Finally succuming to her feelings, she started to weep bitterly. Seconds later she felt a hand caressing her head and that made her cry harder, because she knew that what happened today would just be the beginning and she feared what would happen next.

**Other side of campus**

Maria was still sitting on the ground and stared sadly at the ruins that had been the library. The tears she had been shedding earlier were now dried and she just felt numb, like the life had been sucked out of her the moment she saw the building collapse. She couldn´t grasp that her friends had been in there and were probably dead or pretty hurt at least. Disbelieving she shook her head. She shouldn´t think like that. Until she had proof she would still believe that her friends had survived and were surely waiting for her. But what if it wasn´t like that? What should she do then? How could she explain their parents that their son was dead? And what about Liz´ parents? A new wave of sorrow was washing over her and she was relieved when she saw the paramedics and firemen do their work. They could probably help those trapped in the clutter. Happily she regnorized students walking out of the debris and getting treated. Suddenly she heard squeaking tires behind her and turned around. Annoyed she found out that the press got wind of this incident and were now arriving in flocks to report about the tragedy.

" What a spectacle, huh?".

Maria had almost forgotten that she wasn´t alone and whirled around angrily at the guy wearing her former lovers face. Furious she jumped to her feet and stormed towards him. He had to be the one behind this attack. With a boost of her powers she gripped him at his throat and lifted him a few feet from the ground. " You´re behind this, aren´you? You´re the reason for this".

The calm man just smirked at her like he expected her reaction already. " Hey easy love. You won´t get your answers if you kill me".

" Don´t play any games with me. I´m not in the mood for it right now. So either you tell me what you know or I will make sure that you won´t be alive in the next minutes", Maria was two seconds away to snap the neck of this scumbag. In her condition it wouldn´t need much to drive her over the edge and let her do something that was pretty unusual for her. And she wouldn´t even regret doing it in the first place.

The hanging male was slowly starting to get a little blue in the face and the smug expression vanished all of the sudden. The grip around his throat was tightening, just to stress the point and his heart began to beat weaker. At this moment a tiny bit of panic was crawling up his spine. " Let me down and I´ll tell you what you want to know"

Maria was pondering if it was smart to react to the suggestion. But then she remembered that firstly she was powerful and to top of it all majorly pissed, which made her even stronger and secondly too many people were around, especially reporter with cameras to do something stupid like stiring up a fight. Despite her good reasons, she was careful when she dropped him back onto the ground and released his hold on him. " So. Talk if you value your life".

" You didn´t change a bit. Still the same tough girl you had been on Antar", the guy rubbed the spots where her fingers dug into his skin. Damn, he forgot how much strenght she had in her gentle small hands.

Maria felt uncomfortable to look into the face of Rath and to know that it wasn´t him. It was probably some sick twisted move from Nicolai to scare or weaken her. Bastard, the next time she would see him she would remember to thank him properly for that. Maybe with a nice facial or helping lose a few points of entrails. " You don´t know me. So don´t talk to me like that. You´re not Rath, even if you wear his face".

That earned her a nice deep chuckle from her counterpart before he nodded at something behind her. Within seconds Maria felt a pretty hard knock on her head and after that everything went black for her. Rath bent down to her and whispered in her ear. " You´re wrong. I´m real", then he arose again and stared at Nicolai standing opposite him with a small steel rod in his right hand and wearing a paramedic uniform. " Let´s get her away from here".

**A while and a miles later**

Maria carefully opened her eyes and closed them immediately. The light was too bright for her and her head was pounding like a jackhammer. Besides she saw everything in a blur and it was making her slightly nauseous. After she took a few deep breaths she tried again to open her eyes. Thankfully this time she could do it without any pain and she could finally see her surroundings. Scanning the area around her she didn´t regnorize where she was. It was looking like a abandoned warehouse or something close to that. Dust was covering old dirty blankets concealing some big things underneath, the floor was totally damaged from years of using it and the paint on the walls was chipping off. For a moment she thought she saw a few rats crawling through holes, but that could be just her imagination, besides the hall was so filthy that it was hard to make a difference between living things and trash. The windows were almost black due to the mud glued to the panes, just a few spots were letting sunbeams through and the smell was a mix between a restroom at a disco just before closing and trash lying around for three years in the heating sun. Maria made a face and wanted to pinch her nose to prevent the good aweful stench from hurting her sense of smell. But surprised she realized her hands were tied behind her back and she noticed that she was sitting on an uncomfortable chair.

" Well, well. Sleeping beauty finally awoke from her deep slumber".

Maria´s head snapped upwards and she saw Rath standing besides Nicolai, who seemed to have shred his human skin and was now looking like she had known him all her life on Antar. The same traitorous creature with the same cold grey eyes and the black hair, which were a bit longer than she remembered. " Now, if it´s not Tweedledee and Tweedledum. How come I get the pleasure of your visit?".

Nicolai smirked at his half sister and her dumb lines. She thought she was so smart and so fearless, but in truth she was just a little girl trying to be more than she was. " Don´t say you´re not delighted to see us? We already looked forward with anticipation for this meeting".

" Great. Then why couldn´t you provide a nicer atmosphere and at least a chair with a more comfortable seat? And I would fire your maid, because it´s smells like something died in here years ago", Maria was trying to distract the boys while she worked on the ropes keeping her hands tied together. Strangly nothing happened and her bonds were not budging one bit. Usually she could free herself from cuffs within seconds and without any problems. But these were different and got tighter the more she fought to loose them.

Rath watched her battling with the thick ropes around her wrist. Slightly amused he saw them cutting into her skin and blood dripping on the ground beneath her. Smiling like a damn lunatic he kneeled in front of her. " You can stop fighting against your bonds, because you can´t free yourself from them. They´re alien proved. You just hurt your delicate arms in the process".

Maria was so feed up with this nasty version of her past lover. Angrily she bent forward until she was as close as she could without really touching him. She stared into his eyes and was surprised to see the same things reflecting there like she remembered it from Rath. A gentleness that was hidden behind his indifference and his hard exterior. " Take this face off or I will personally do it!".

" Sorry honey, can´t do", Rath stood up from his crouched position and pointed at his face. " This is me. This is how I looked before and how I want to look now. Not like this wannabe punk pretending to be me", he had seen enough of his replacement and it had been a shock to see that he was just a young boy.

Maria shook her head unbelieving. Yeah right and the next thing she got told was that Elvis was still alive. And even if there was a tiny part of truth behind this statement, how came that he was working for the other side now? " You´re lying! Rath is dead. I was there when he died".

Rath chuckled at the naive girl in front of him. So much like Marianna and yet so far away from the person she had been. If not for the green eyes, he wouldn´t have even recognized her anymore. She wasn´t as attractive as she had been before, but for human standards pretty passable. " Yeah. Now that you mention that, I want to thank you for getting me killed and let my family die. I can´t express how much that meant to me".

" If you would be Rath, you would know that I did what I could to save everyone", Maria tried to quell the urge to cry. He had hit her weak spot. Still today she was blaming herself for the death of her second family. And it got worse when she was told that it was true for a small part, that it was a little her fault.

Rath started to laughed loudly at the statement. It was a deep and sarcastic tone. So unusual for him and it was scary. Then suddenly he stopped and bent down to look into her eyes. For a moment it appeared like he wanted to burn her with his angry glance, but he took her face in his warm hands and caressed it with his thumbs. " Sweet Marianna. You never had what it needed to be a good soldier. You were too weak, too emotionally and most of all too feminine. The only use you had was to entertain us and give us some eye candy".

Maria´s lips began to tremble slightly and tears were shooting in her eyes. But she took all her powers to prevent herself from crying in front of this two bastards. They were trying to play their mind games with her and they almost managed to hurt her. Thankfully Kyle choose this moment to chime into her mind and tell her that everyone was alive and at the local hospital. Alex had a broken bone which got fixed, Tess a small bruise on her head and he himself a small concussion with a few scratches. Michael on the other hand had been more injured but she shouldn´t worry, because the doctors were working on him. Just before her brother could asked about her whereabouts, she was thrown out of her connection. Startled she looked at the annoyed faces of her kidnapper.

" Hey! I was talking to you. Can´t you answer or did you swallow your tongue?".

Maria stretched her feets out and leant against the backrest, well as much as her restraints would let her. Calmly she smiled at Rath´ furious looking expression. Her friends and her brother were alive. And who cared what these two were thinking about her? They didn´t know her anymore and their oppinion was irrelevant. The people around her mattered and nobody else. " What do you wanna hear from me? You want me to start crying me eyes out and beg for your forgiveness? I don´t beg and the real Rath knew that fact".

Now Nicolai joined the conversation. He was so sick of watching them, he wanted action. " He is real. That´s your former lover standing in front of you".

" And how did you do that? I mean you´re not bright enough for something so difficult", Maria observed Rath more precisely. Everything was correct, the mimic, the gestures, the damn twinkle in his eyes and the slightly cocky stance. But how was this possible? Larek and his eggheads were the most smartest men she had known and they only had managed to put their essence in a human fetus. And yet they had the memory and the powers, but not the appearance.

Nicolai stepped forward and striked her cheek with the flat of his hand pretty hard. Her head snapped with much force to the other side. When she turned her face in his direction again, he saw a nice red handprint on her skin and blood dripping from her mouth, which she licked off with satisfaction. Cursing himself for falling into her trap, he put more distance between him and her. Although he felt a little better after he could give in to temptation and do something he wanted to do since they saw each other in Roswell. " Sorry, reflex", shaking his wrist he went to his place besides Rath again. " Pretty neat what our scientist created with a bit of his blood and a few hair. We cloned your precious commander and changed his brain a bit. Now he´s a loyal follower of Khivar and our strongest ally so far".

Maria tried to digest the information and was shocked how far her halfbrother would go to win. He even created his own Rath to have a advantage. And the worse at this statement, it was true, they had one of the strongest person on their side, but he was not better than her. They both had been equals, in strength and powers. Suddenly the last part of the sentence drifted into her mind. What did Nicolai mean with so far? " Wait. So far? Don´t tell me you want to make a clone of Marianna? That would be really icky"

" Finally we come to point of this little get together", Nicolai rubbed his hand happily. He had waited long enough to submit this offer. To damn bad that his father couldn´t be here to see all this. He would be proud. " We, meaning me and Rath, want to make a deal with you".

Maria prepared herself for some dumb little joke. Deal? What could she have that they wanted and what in contrast could they have what she wanted? Because a deal consisted of give and take. " Alright. Give it to me".

Rath walked closer to her and kneeled at her feet. Grinning he put his ellbows on her thighs and looked deep into her eyes. " You join our side and we guarantee you a safe position".

" Are you serious?", Maria expected much, a threat to her life or maybe her families life. But this was too much. She just had to laugh, there was no way around it. The laughter was loud and came direct from the bottom. Tears were streaming down her face and she knew that her belly would be hurting in the morning. After a few seconds she controlled herself again, when she noticed that she was the only one finding this funny. She saw the sober expressions. " Oh my god! You really mean it, don´t you?".

Rath arose in a standing position and circled around her. He knew that she was stubborn and she wouldn´t agree immediately to the suggestion. But he could with that, because deep down she was the same woman he fell in love with. " Yes. We could be together again. Side by side fighting against those losers. They´re loosing this war, Marianna. But we give you the chance to reconsider your oppinion and live a happy life with us".

Maria shook her head. Did she step into the twilight Zone or had the knock on her head killed her and this was her private hell? Because this couldn´t be real. Oh shit, maybe she was sleeping and this was just a nightmare. Forcefully she tugged at her ropes and pain was shooting through her arms. All right, not a dream. Well then she had to handle the situation different. " First of all my name is Maria and this chica is not working with gutless bastards such as you. And secondly you don´t really expect me to believe you, do you?".

" Obviously you don´t understand the implication of this deal. You have two options. You either accept or you don´t. But remember that a bad decision could cost you what you love the most", Nicolai knew that she had one weakness and that was her family. He saw it when he picked her sister up for a date. She would do anything to protect them, even if it meant killing someone or getting killed herself.

Maria´s complete aura changed after that. Her eyes turned to a darker shade of green, it looked almost black, her body was tensing to the point that it appeared like she would explode every minute and her yaw was moving angrily. " I hope for you that this isn´t a threat against my family, because then I have to kill you. And believe me when I say that this time nothing will stop me from doing it".

Nicolai was aware that she was dead serious, after all she didn´t have the sibling bond like the last time and she knew what happened when she would let him alive, because she lived it once and she wouldn´t do the same mistake again. But he had Rath on his side and that would make a difference. Slowly he went behind his half sister and bent his down to her ear. " I won´t touch your family. Yet. But if you choose the wrong side, I will take care of them".

" We´ll give you time to think about everything. But don´t take forever. We´ll see each other again and then we expect an answer", Rath nodded at his partner and together they walked calmly out of the warehouse.

After they both had been out of sight, the ropes holding Marias hands prisoner fell from her wrist. Immediately she jumped to her feet to storm after them, but as soon as her legs had to carry her weight, they refused to do their job. Slightly weak on the feets she plopped down onto the chair and waited until her body was finally doing what he was supposed to do. Then she scratched off her first instincts to go after Dumb and Dumber and went to find her friends instead.

**Hospital**

Kyle was sitting on the brown plastic chair in the waiting room and watched the entrance door with tension. He hated to not know what happened to his sister. She was alright, that much he knew, but it was strange that their connection just snapped like that. He was worried about her, more than usual and he didn´t like the feeling. Tess besides him seemed to sense his discomfort and squeezed his hand, although she was extremly nervous herself. After all her brother was in one of this rooms and nobody could or wanted to tell her about his condition. Biting her nails on her other hand she let her gaze wander to Max and Liz opposite them. They both were quietly talking to each other. Probably about the explosion and who was behind it. Or how the actually managed to come out of the mess without a scratch on them. Isabel was on the way to nail a doctor, who could finally tell her what happened to her boyfriend and how bad it was. Everybody knew she just wanted to distract herself from worrying about Alex and his injured leg, which they knew was broken, but had to be operated because the bone broke through his skin and now they had to set the fracture. It could take a while, judging after the many people lining at the walls or sitting on stretchers.

" Oh thank god", suddenly Kyle jumped to his feets and waved like a damn lunatic with his arms.

Tess surprised about the sudden move of her boyfriend glanced in the direction and saw her roommate coming towards them. Maria was fastly storming in their direction and smiled relieved at them. With a squeal she threw herself in her brothers arms and squeezed him tightly. Tess could just hear something that sounded like they both were glad that they were alright.

Maria pushed herself back from Kyle to look properly at him. She was a little disturbed about the small patch on his forehead. Tenderly she stroked over it. " Shit, what happened?".

" It´s nothing. Hamlet just fell on my head", he shrugged uncomfortable and cursed himself for not thinking about a cool story he could tell his sister. But Tess was with him and she would have blow his lie immediately. Besides he didn´t need to play the hero with her, she knew him better than that.

Maria smiled through the happy tears shining in her eyes. She was so relieved to see him alive and just barely hurt. Okay, he was the one getting in contact with her via their sibling bond, but now she had visible proof. " I told you Shakespear would be too hard for you".

Kyle rubbed over his wound and grinned sheepishly. Yeah, if he had known how hard he would have told Tess to go in the science fiction section instead. Well, now he had made a new experience and knew that you never made out in the classical literature area of the library. " Great, like it´s not embarrassing enough that I got knocked out from a book, now I got mocked from my own sister".

" Oh poor bro, I´m sorry for not taking you serious", she ruffled his hair playfully and then turned her attention to the girl standing up from her chair and shyly smiling at her. Instantly she went to her roommate and embraced her. " How are you?".

Tess sniffed loudly at that and when she parted from her friend she wiped a few tears from her face. " I´m good. But Michael is still in one of those rooms and nobody wants to tell me anything. I´m worried and those damn doctors don´t see that".

Maria took the others girl face in her hands and tried to calm her a little. After all it wouldn´t be good for her if she made a big deal out of everything and then she would notice it was for nothing. " He will be fine. He´s stronger than that and he´s a fighter".

" I know that. But I´m still scared", Tess was glad that her roommate was with them again. She was the only one aside from her brother who could make her feel better. Well Kyle could do that, too. But with him it was different. Maybe it was the fact that he was human and didn´t have the mental abilities like them.

Suddenly a Dr. Ross lookalike was walking towards them with a chart in his hand. His expression wasn´t giving away what happened. All females immediately watched how nicely the doctor coat suited him. White was his color. " Relatives of Michael Dupree?".

Tess instantly went to the hottie and noticed that he even looked better from close up. And his deep rough voice was sending chills up and down her spine. But then she remembered why she was here in the first place and snapped out of her trance. " I´m his sister".

" I´m Dr. Williams and I was the one treating your brother. I have to say he has to have someone up there who really likes him. He was lucky. Except for a small concussion and two broken ribs everything is fine. A few days of rest and he will be as good as new".

Tess breathed out relieved and even managed a small smile at the doctor. She would have rather squeezed the older man, but she thought it wasn´t properly and her boyfriend was not far away. " Thank you. When can we see him?".

Dr. Williams eyed the chart in his hand shortly and then focused his vision on the girl in front of him. " He´s awake right now, so I think you can see him. He´s in room numer 285. But don´t stress him too much.".

" No problem and thank you again", Tess took Kyle´s hand and dragged him in the direction of her brother. She had to see for herself that he was fine and maybe yell a little at him for scaring her.

Maria watched them both disappear in the loud crowd and let out a quiet sob. She was so happy that Michael was alright and not hurt too badly. Even if she had tried to reassure her roommate about his condition, she hadn´t been so sure about it herself. But now she knew that everything was fairly good, at least in her little world. Finally she recognized her best friend and her boyfriend staring at her. Composing herself she walked over to them and sat besides the brunette. " Sorry I didn´t see you right away".

Liz didn´t say anything and huged her friend tightly. She had been recalling her mantra since childhood, everything will be fine, repeatedly and she probably had broken Max´ hand by squeezing it too hard. But now a load was taken from her mind. " I had been so worried about you".

" Although I told her that it was pointless, because you´re the least of us that we should worry about", Max chimed in. Despite the teasing in his voice, he was glad that all his friends were around him. Most of them unharmed and the others just slightly hurt.

Maria released herself from the strong hold of her best friend and smiled at him. She didn´t know if she should take it as a compliment or as an insult. But either way, it didn´t matter and he was kinda right about that. She didn´t had to fear anything at the moment, because Nicolai and Rath wouldn´t kill her. Yet at least. " Oh you know me. I´m Teflon Babe, nothing can hurt me", she scanned the area around her and realized that two people were still missing from the bunch. " Hey, where are Alex and Isabel?".

Liz finally saw the red marks on her friends wrist and wondered where she got them. It didn´t look like it had been caused from the accident. They were rather appearing like she had been bound and had tried to free herself. " What is that? How did it happen? And most importantly where have you been?".

" Oh it´s nothing. I just had a quarell with my past", Maria shrugged unconcerned and glanced at her wrists. Thankfully her healing power had already kicked in and most of her small injuries had been gone. It would have just caused more question when she would have appeared with two bleeding hands and a pretty blubber lip.

At that Max looked alarmed, because he knew the implication of the sentence. It was probably Nicolai again. Damn, why couldn´t the little troll stay away from them? Did he have a death wish or what? " What did the bastard want?".

Maria felt extremly uneasy with all the question. She didn´t want to frighten anyone and she didn´t want to keep something from them. But it was better to talk with someone with more experience before she spread the news around. " Oh you know the usual. He threaten my existence and called me names. Nothing I haven´t heard before".

" Guys. Alex came through the operation and everything went well", Isabel finally appeared with the biggest smile the world ever saw on her face. Her usual tidy hair was sticking in every direction and it appeared like she had cried.

Liz and Maria stood up immediately and went to their friend. Happily they embraced each other and enjoyed this moment of relieve. Max remained seated and watched the three girls holding onto the other like there was no tomorrow.

Suddenly a voice came over the speakers with an announcement and everybody stopped talking to hear it.

" _A phonecall for Maria or Kyle Valenti. I repeat. A phonecall for Maria or Kyle Valenti"._

Maria was confused about that. Who would call her here? And who would know that she would be here at all? She noticed the worried glances of her friends around her. They seemed to think the same thing right now. A little wigged she walked to the reception, which took her a tad bit longer than she thought, because of the many people standing in her way. When she made it through the crowd she saw a slight overweight black woman standing behind a counter and shuffling through papers. On her nose were white glasses and made her look a little funny. Slowly she stepped closer to her. " Hy. My name is Maria Valenti".

The woman looked up from her work and eyed her. Then she pointed besides her with her eyes. " Yeah. Someone´s calling for you".

" Thanks", Maria took the receiver lying on the counter with shaking hands. Who would be on the other side? Did she want to know it at all? Breathing out nervously she put the phone at her ear. " Hello?".

" _Oh thank god your alive. I´m already trying to reach you or Kyle for almost two hours now. Do you know how worried I have been"._

Maria chuckled with ease. She was so glad to hear her father on the line, even if he was slightly hysterical or at least he sounded like that. " Dad, calm down. We´re fine", then she wondered how he knew what happened. " How did you know where we are?".

" _I´ve got a friend in the Las Cruces Police Departement. I told him that he should inform me if something should happen. He called me immediately when he learned about the explosion and when I couldn´t reach you or your brother I phoned every hospital in the proximity"._

Maria should have known that he would set the local police on his children, to keep an eye on them and check that they wouldn´t do something stupid or illegal. Their father was such a control freak. It was a wonder that he even allowed them to go to college in another town. " Now you can relax. Kyle and me are healthy", she stopped in midsentence when she heard the door in her fathers office burst open and she catched the voice of her mother, who was hysterical telling her husband about the accident and that she couldn´t reach the kids.

" _Amy stop, sit down and breath deeply in and out", a little pause. " Now calm down. The kids are fine. I´m talking to Maria right now. _

Maria listened as her mother demanded the phone from her husband. She wanted audible proof that her children were unhurt. " You better give her the phone or she will let you sleep on the couch for a very long time".

" _Don´t remind me. Here´s your mother", a quiet rustle was heard and then Amy spoke. " Honey are you alright?"._

Maria rolled her eyes and wondered if her mother knew what she was doing. Of course she was alright when she talked with her father. " Yeah. Like I told Dad already, Kyle and I are perfectly fine".

" _And why couldn´t you call me and tell me that immediately? You had me worried sick with fear. If Jeff hadn´t seen the news we still wouldn´t know about the accident at your college. Don´t do that again, young lady or I will ground you until your too old to enjoy your life anymore"._

Maria was glad to have a long distance between her and her mother, because she was sure that it would be more dangerous to be near her than be in a room with poisonous snakes." I´m sorry. Everything was so frenzied and chaos everywhere, that I didn´t get the chance to call you".

" _I´m just glad that nothing happened to you or your brother. How are the others?"._

Maria saw Tess and Kyle stepping out of a room. They seemed to be looking for something. Then they stopped with Max and Liz, who talked to them for a minute before pointing in her direction. After that her brother came towards her. " They´re fine. Well Alex has a broken leg, but that will heal soon".

" _That´s good to know. I´ll tell Charles that. He will be glad to know that his son is alright"._

Maria didn´t listen any longer to her mother. She was too occupied with watching her brother walking in her direction. His face was expressionless and didn´t gave away what was going on. And quite frankly it was scaring her. " Sorry Mom. Can you wait a minute? Kyle wants to talk to you", then she took the receiver from her hear and stared at him when he stopped in front of her. " What´s up?"

Kyle crossed his arms over his chest and glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. Then his face broke out in a smile. " Your boyfriend send us out to find you. He wants to see for himself that you´re in one piece and unharmed"

" All right", she pushed the phone towards him and grinned satanic." Mom wants to have a word with you", perfectly knowing that he would get the same lecture about giving her a heartattack in her young age, she walked away.

Minutes later she stood in front of Michael´s room and tried to find the guts to step inside. She was dreading going in there. For one thing she didn´t want to see her boyfriend lying injured in some hospital bed and that because of her. Secondly she feared that he would blame her for the explosion. But she knew that she had to do it, otherwise it would look strange. Looking up she send a prayer to the big man above before she took a deep breath and knocked softly. Carefully she opened the door and peered in the room with her head. Relieved she saw her boyfriend sitting up in his bed and glancing at her. " Hey".

Michael instantly brightened up when he saw her. He had been so worried about her when the others told him that they didn´t know where she was. " Hey yourself".

Maria smiled at him, relieved that he wouldn´t hold anything against her. Without saying a word she stormed at his bed side and embraced him tenderly. She would have squeezed the life out of him if she wouldn´t have been so afraid that she could hurt him with it. Happy tears were dropping from her face. " I´m so glad that you´re alright. I was so scared when I saw the building collapse".

" I´m fine. You know it needs more than a few stones to get me out of the way", Michael felt at ease, knowing that everybody he cared about where alive and near him. Especially Maria. Now he could finally rest a little.

Maria released her hold on him, kissed his slightly swollen lips and then took a seat on the chair besides the bed. Not once letting go of his hand. With her free hand she wiped the tears from her face, because she didn´t want him to see her with tearstained eyes. " You´re hurt nontheless", she stroked over a few of his more obvious scratches on his face. Thankfully they would heal soon and if not, he would look hot with light scares.

Michael shrugged his shoulders. He survived worse things in his life. Besides his alien genes really helped his healing process, although not so fast like it did with Maria. " It´s not so bad actually"

" And I´m glad for that small miracle", Maria felt for the first time the strain of the last few days and she was thankful that she was sitting. Otherwise she would be already lying on the ground, because she was sure that her legs would have given up on her.

Michael noticed the weariness in her eyes. He knew that the last days hadn´t been exactly stress free and it had happened so much in such a short space. But there was something that made him a little uneasy. " Where have you been? The others didn´t see you at the spot you had been. And who was the guy you chased?".

Maria had waited for this question already. But she didn´t think it was the time or the place for this conversation. Besides they had enough time to talk about it and prepare something, thanks to the deal of Nicolai. " Don´t worry about that right now. Just concentrate on getting better. Everything else we can discuss at a later date".

" Are you sure? Don´t think I haven´t seen the wounds on your wrist", they had been bothering him when he noticed them and he immediately knew how they got there. Something had been happening to her. However he was aware that she hadn´t told him anything, which either meant it was over or it was no big deal to her.

Maria looked at the red marks and her mind wandered to the threat Nicolai had made towards her. If she didn´t do what he wanted, he would go after her family. That included Michael, too. She couldn´t watch him die again. " Don´t worry about that. If it would have been serious I would have told everybody about it already, don´t you think?".

Michael caressed the back of her hand with his thumb while staring at her clear eyes. All right, he would her believe for now. But that didn´t mean he wouldn´t ask again anytime soon. Nodding at her he dropped the topic and concentrated on their linked hands. He enjoyed the light touches from her delicate fingers and it made him realized how much he really loved her. She had been the last thought in his head when the bomb exploded and the first when he woke up. " I love you".

" Oh shit, the knock on your head had caused damage to your brain", Maria tried to cover her surprise with a joke. She hadn´t expected him to say it to her, especially not at this place and not like that. Just so out of the blue and without advanced notice. He couldn´t just blurt something out like that, in the middle of a hospital with the smell of antiseptic hanging in the air.

Michael felt a pang of hurt at her words. It wasn´t the reaction he imagined when he declared his love for her. He thought she would tell him the same or at least be moved about it. " It´s ok if you don´t feel the same way about me. I just thought I´d tell you how I feel".

Maria dropped his hand on the white blanket and stood up. She couldn´t sit still when she voiced what was going through her head. How much fear she felt just at the thought of expression her feelings for him. The last time she had done that, he had died. And after the accident today, she was sure that it would be like that again. They would kill him just to destroy her. " It´s not that. I love you more than anything on this planet. So much that I don´t even find words for that".

" Why do I sense a but?", Michael followed her movements with his eyes and wondered what was going on with her. It should be great that they both felt the same towards each other. Nothing to be worried about. Or was he wrong about that?

Maria faced him and she knew exactly what she had to do to keep him safe. He wouldn´t like what she would say and it would probably break her heart. But when it meant he would be alive to see his grandchildren grow up, then they had to bear with the pain. " I don´t want to see you getting killed. Not because of me or because of this stupid curse. You just mean too much to me and I can´t take this risk again".

Michael realized what she was trying to tell him and he couldn´t even stand the thought. She couldn´t just come to a decision without even asking him about it. That wasn´t how a relationship worked. Quietly cursing his hurting body, he tried to get on his feet. Unfortunately his broken ribs wouldn´t let him do that. " Great. And you think when you´re breaking up with me it will be better? Do you think the danger will disappear just because we´re not together anymore?".

" No. Why do you have to fight with me about every little thing. I want to protect you and make sure that you live to see the next day. It has nothing to do with feelings", Maria rubbed her face tiredly. She was so damn sick of this whole shit. All she ever wanted was to be normal, to live a life like anybody else. Go to school, find a job, get a man, marry and have a few kids. But no, destiny had to screw with her. She hated the gods for giving her this curse.

Michael would have like the sight of her angry side if the situation wouldn´t be so serious. " You don´t need to protect me. I´m not defenceless, you know. I can take care of myself".

Maria shook her head, she knew that fact herself. But she was desperate, they barely escaped an explosion directed at her. The next time it could be deadly for someone and she was afraid it could be him. She would rather suffer from seperation than from sorrow. " There´s nothing you can do to change my mind. It´s over", quickly she turned around to hide her tears and made a hasty departure.

Michael watched her disappear from his sight. He wouldn´t let her go through with her silly little plan. If she wanted him gone from her life, she had to do more than just breaking up with him. Namely shooting him with a space ship into the cosmos or killing him. Nothing was over yet. Not as long as he was still breathing.

TBC


	55. Chapter 55

**Thanx for the nice feedback RoswellJunkie and RedJewel2662. Hope you enjoy the next chapter. **

**Chapter 53 **

When Maria arrived back at the campus most of the turmoil had died down. The firemen were in the process to pack their things and leave, the last ambulances drove away and just a handfull of reportes were still there. They interviewed some students, who either survived the explosion unharmed or had just witnessed the whole spectacle. But she didn´t pay great attention to the people around her, she had enough to do with the huge black hole that was engulfing her bleeding heart. Part of her wanted to go back and tell Michael that he shouldn´t take what she said seriously, that she had been high or that her evil twin had taken over her. And the other part was glad to have ended things now, something she should have done the first time everything fell apart around them. Her head was so sure that she made the right decision, in contrast to her heart, which was telling her that she made the biggest mistake of her life. Sadly she wrapped her arms tighter around her body, because a cold wind started to blow and made her freeze slightly. Unfortunately her favourite jacket had been in the library. For a moment she thought about looking for it in the ruins, but dismissed it immediately. She had other problems at the moment, namely planning a tactic to avoid Michael. Not so easy when your brother was the roommate and the own roommate the sister of the said person. At least she had time to think about something. As long as he was staying in the hospital she wouldn´t see him. The downside was that Tess or at least Kyle would question her about her decision. Suddenly she heard someone calling her name and looked up startled.

" Oh god. I´m so relieved to see you".

Maria was shocked when Nolak threw his arms around her and pressed her tightly at his body. Surprised she needed a few seconds to respond to the embrace, mildly freaked about the openly showing of emotions from someone she thought was the last person who would do that. " Yeah thanks. Is everything alright with you?".

Nolak pushed her softly away from him to look for himself that it was her and she wasn´t hurt in any kind. Happily he noted that it was indeed her and there were no visible injuries. " I should ask the same. How are you?".

" Fine, a little worse for the wear and pretty tired, but otherwise good", Maria wanted to ask him so many questions at the moment. About the appearance of Rath, the explosion and what they should do now. She even was tempted to tell him about the deal she got offered from her half brother. But she didn´t have the strength for it right now. Maybe tomorrow, when the shock settled down and she was rested.

Nolak noticed the depressing tone in her voice and worried instantly. Especially when he realized that she was alone and he saw the pain in her eyes. " What is it? Where are the others?".

Maria had to swallow the lump in her throat. Just the mention of the others was letting her mind wander to Michael and the last conversation they had. Quickly blinking back tears she tried to appear strong, although every part of her told that she was weak. " They´re still at the hospital. Alex has a broken bone and M..Michael a few broken ribs", she almost stumbled over the name of her ex lover.

" Then why are you looking like someone died?", Nolak knew her long enough to read every emotion on her face. It wasn´t always easy, because she could be so guarded that not even an empath could decipher what was going on in her. But sometimes she let a small glimpse of her feelings out and it appeared in her expression or even in her stance. Like right now.

Maria wanted to scream at him that he should finally stop questioning her and just to leave her alone. But she knew that her problems weren´t with Nolak or his many questions. No he was reminding her about the pain she caused herself and probably on Michael too. " Can we talk about it tomorrow? I´m not in the condition right now. I have to tell you something anyway. But not now".

Nolak recognized the tired circles under her eyes and the hanging of her shoulders. Yeah, she had been through enough for today. They still had time to discuss everything in private. Even more time than she thought. " Didn´t you hear it? The college will be closed until they know what caused the explosion and why it hit the library. Everbody was told to pack their things and go back home. When everything is over, they will send the message".

" Great. They will never found the source of the bomb or the reason", Maria rubbed her face with shaking hands. She suddenly felt a little lightheaded and her stomach clenched. Her body was on the brink to give up the fight to stay on her feets.

Nolak picked up that she was close to fall over. Immediately he wrapped his arms around her middle to steady her. He was pretty worried about her condition. At least a few minutes ago she had been having color in her cheeks, but within seconds it had been gone. Now she looked like she was not far away from fainting. " I should bring you to your room. You don´t look very healthy".

Maria didn´t even have the strength to nod anymore, but she didn´t have to do that anyway, because in that moment the world around her sunk in absolute darkness. Like a stone her body dropped down and was just hindered from crashing to the ground by the grip of Nolak. He instantly lifted her in his arms and carried her carefully towards the women building. The day had finally took its toll on her and now her body claimed its rest. She still had to learn that she had the powers of an alien, but the body of a human, which meant that she couldn´t strain it like she wanted. He watched her angelic face while he climbed up the staircases. She was so young and so inexperienced and yet everybody expected her to lead a war against one of the cruelest person in this universe. All right, she had help from her friends and Michael at her side, but still she was pretty much alone. Just because of a damn prophecy made thousands of years ago. She is the last of her kind, a goddess with the strength of the acient world. They always thought that she and Rath, the most powerful creature on Antar, were equally. But after this morning when Larek called him to tell him that they finally figured out the last part of the prophecy in the destiny book, they knew that Maria was so far above him that he would need thousands of years to come to her level. All she had to do was use the gift she received and she could be ruling the whole universe. Of course with so much power there was always the worry about getting addicted to it, which usually ended at the dark side or getting so consumed by it that the person died. They didn´t want that with her, so they decided to keep that information about her for themself and hoped that it wouldn´t come to the point where they had to spill the beans. Yeah, hope was the only thing they had right now. Finally Nolak looked up and noticed that he walked past the room of Tess and Maria. Briskly he turned around and went down the hall. Thankfully the girls were pretty much at the end of the floor and he didn´t need too long before he came to the right place. Slowly he opened the door and brought her to the bed, where he laid her tenderly on. Just as he was in the process to cover her with the light blanket, someone stomped angrily through the threshold.

" What are you doing here?".

Nolak whirled around and looked steadily at the furious blonde girl standing opposite him. She had her hands on her hips and her eyes twinkled dangerously. He didn´t like the tone in her voice and especially now. She maybe had been a future queen on Antar, but the things were different here on earth. " What does it look like I´m doing?".

Tess glared at him and her stance changed slightly. She had no time for this shit, she had to talk with someone she thought was a friend. " Leave".

" Why? What is going on here?", Nolak didn´t understand what happened at the moment. He never saw the other girl like that. Not even when Rath had been playing his pranks on her. What had her so angry at her friend?

Tess was close to explode. She had to strain her powers not to let them out, because then it could get ugly really fast here. With clenched fist and a great deal of willpower she pushed the words through pinched teeths. " Maria broke up with Michael".

Nolak glanced shocked at her and then faced the girl lying in the bed. No wonder Maria had been so rattled. It wasn´t because of the explosion, although part of it might be true, but more about the break up. The pain in her eyes had been about Michael. But why would she ditch him when she felt so deeply for him? " That´s not possible. They both love each other".

" Yeah, I thought the same until an hour ago. Before I knew which kind of person my supposed friend was", Tess knew that would regret most of the things she said as soon as her anger disappeared. She didn´t even mean half of the things she blurted out. But to her defence, she had to witness the pain her brother had been in and it hadn´t been exactly pleasant. Michael loved Maria more than anything else.

Nolak shook his head at her. She couldn´t believe the things tumbling out of her mouth, could she? Maria wasn´t someone that would hurt somebody on purpose, especially not someone she loved as much as she did Michael. " Don´t do that. Don´t make your friend the bad guy here. She probably had a reason for breaking up".

Tess snorted very unladylike and her face twisted into a sarcastic mask. Of course she had a damn good reason, she was scared of making a commitment towards her brother. End of story. " Yeah, she told Michael something about protecting him. She didn´t want him getting killed because of her or some other garbage".

" Makes sense", Nolak thought about the fight between Marianna and Rath near the end. She even had wanted to disappear from the castle just to protect the others. If not for the stubborn interfere of Larek and Rath himself, she would have been gone. The girl was too devoted for her own good. Someday she would get really hurt because of her pigheaded mentality.

Tess noticed the far away look of their mentor. He seemed to be trapped in a memory. " How does it make sense? I don´t understand".

Nolak jerked his head in her direction and chased away the picture haunting his dreams, sometimes even his awakened state. It had been the most horrible day of his life. His charges had been too young to handle the responsibility and they paid it with their lifes. He didn´t want to see that happening again. " You don´t remember it, because you had been already dead. But Rath and Marianna had this awful fight. Rath was angry and pretty mean towards her while she was broken hearted about the battle where most of the royal family died. She thought that it was her fault that the attack happened. After the funeral she packed her things and wanted to go away before more died because of her, but Rath wouldn´t let her leave and you know the rest already".

" That sounds horrible. Poor Maria. The explosion must have triggered her memory and now she´s afraid that everything will be happening again", Tess felt lousy for damning her roommate without listening to her side. But her first priority was her brother and then her friends. A part understood the motivation behind the break up. And yet she was angry at Maria for taking the decision in her hands and not even thinking about what it would do to Michael.

Nolak was glad that he was of help. He didn´t want to see such a great friendship getting damaged because of a small misunderstanding. Now he had only one problem to solve. Bringing Michael and Maria together again. They both needed each other, now more than ever. " Yeah. How are the others?".

For the first time since storming into the room Tess smiled. Everything had been looking worse than it had been in reality and everybody had been relieved to know that. " Michael has to stay overnight, but tomorrow he can go home. Well he has to rest for a week or so, but with the quick healing powers he will be back to his old self in less time. Alex leg looks a little scary. He has all this screws in it and everything. But he´s determined to walk out of the hospital in no time. Unfortunately nobody had the heart to tell him otherwise".

" That´s sounds really good. A few days at home should get everyone on their feets again", Nolak would have enough time to plan something with Larek. After all they received their first warning from the other side. Now it was up to them to show what they still had up their sleeves. They would need a few days til a week to work on a plan, time the others would need to recover from the attack.

Tess screwed up her face. What was he talking about? Home? They had still classes and exams to write, which they all would fail now, because nobody had been getting around to learn for anything. But nontheless the life at campus was going on. " Nobody is going home. Why did you say that?".

Nolak remembered that he forgot to tell her about the announcement from Dean Slater. She hadn´t been here to hear it. " Sorry. The campus will be closed until they knew more about the bomb. Everybody has to leave until tomorrow evening".

" Oh shit! That could take forever", Tess was already thinking about the arrangement she had to do. She had to call Juanita for preparing their arrival, tell her grandfather about it, pack her things and then do the same for her brother. Hopefully he was up to a long drive to Tucson.

Nolak smiled at her, because that had been the first reaction from Maria, too. They both seemed to have more in common than a past life and the love for their brothers. " At least enough time that we can prepare a counter attack. Believe me it wasn´t some coincidence that the library exploded just when you all had been in there".

Tess noticed a cold shiver ran down her back and the hair on her neck stood up. So that was what it felt like to be scared. Not the most pleasurable feeling in the world. She thought the only time she had been afraid was when she hid her grandfathers briefcase and he searched for it for hours. He cursed and threatened anybody he thought could have anything to do with the vanishing of it. Scared she disappeared in her brothers room and went in his wall closet. She only had wanted that her grandfather stayed and spent time with her. She hadn´t wanted to make him angry. In the end everything hadn´t been so bad like she thought and her little world had been going the right way again. But she knew that it wouldn´t be like that in this case. " Do you think our time is up?".

" Yes. The attack wasn´t just for the fun, it was a message. A message that the honeymoon is over and the reality begins", Nolak feared that it was too soon again. They were barely out of their teenager age and had just stepped into adulthood. They didn´t know anything about making sacrifices and taking charge for something.

Tess shook her head in astonishment. She had known that someday she had to fight, but she wasn´t prepared that it was so soon already. They haven´t even had time to be glad about surviving the explosion. Now they had to think about sending their enemies a warning, too. Where was the time when she only worried about if her grandfather and her brother would finally find a common ground? Or if she would find a man worthy of her? Or even if she would figure out what she wanted to do with her life. " Then we have to warn everybody. We have to plan something, make those bastards almost piss their pants for messing with us".

Nolak was impressed about the display of command. But it was no surprise for him, after all she had the commando when both commanders were gone, which was the case here. Michael was lying injured in the hospital and Maria was out like a light. " That´s already in work. Don´t worry about that. We just want you to rest a while and heal your injuries".

" But don´t you think they will expect an immediate rebound?", Tess had never shown an interest in warfare or watched movies which had been about a war, but she knew that they had to act fast, shouldn´t give their enemy too much time to think about the consequences.

Nolak would have never guessed that sweet little Ava could be so observant. She had been always more in the background and kept her mouth shut. Maybe it had been because of the commanding presence of Rath or the loud appearance of Vilandra. Both had been very dominating and it probably got worse when Marianna came to them, who was the mix of both of them. But now she had overcome her shyness and took an active role in this battle. Just before he could answer her questions however, a small voice from the bed was heard. " No. They won´t expect an attack right now".

Tess kneeled besides the bed and took the hand of her roommate. Usually Maria looked like she could walk through solid walls without a scratch. But now she appeared like a small breeze could blow her away. She was pretty pale and sweat was covering her forehead." Oh hell, you look like shit".

" Thanks. That´s what every girl loves to hear", Maria wanted to move up a little, so that she was in a sitting position, but the queasy feeling in her stomach wouldn´t let her. She had never felt so aweful in her life and that included the time when she fell from the ladder at Liz´ balcony and dashed on the dumpster under her.

Nolak stepped closer to the bed and eyed his charge. Tess was right, she didn´t look very well. " What is wrong and don´t tell me it´s nothing again or I will give you a good beating this time".

Maria finally managed to lean her head on the dashboard without puking her guts out. " I think everything caught up with me. It will go away as soon as I have rested", she noticed that her mouth was dry and she had problems swallowing. Slowly she turned her head to her roommate. " Can you get me a glass of water, please?".

" Sure. You want something to eat, too", Tess thought her friend should get something in her stomach. But after she received a shaking head, she relented and left the room to find a nice cold bottle of water.

Nolak waited until the other girl was gone before he focused all his attention on Maria. Carefully he took a seat on the bed, all the while looking out that he wouldn´t sat on her. " What is going on? Why did you break up with Michael and what did you mean with the statement about the others not expecting an attack?

Maria licked her lips and was relieved when she noticed the seasick feeling was going away. Wow, where should she start? There was so much she wanted to tell him, so much answers she wanted. But Tess wouldn´t be gone for too long and they hadn´t much time. " Nicolai made me an offer about joining their side. He said he would give me enough time to let me think about his deal. So we will be left in peace for a few days".

" Oh god! Is this little rotten son of a bitch really that dense? Why would he think you would go against your friends and family and follow him?", Nolak had enough from this scumbag. The next time some of his children had a problem with the dirty bootlicker from hell, they should contact him and he would rip him apart, slow and painfully.

Maria knew that he would hear it sooner or later. That was the reason why she didn´t beat around the bush so long like she usually did. It was no use in keeping Nolak in the dark anyway. He had his eyes and ears everywhere. " Because they have Rath on their side".

Nolak nearly swallowed his own tongue at that. For a few seconds he opened and closed his mouth like a fish. It was like he was trying to say something, but didn´t find the right words for it. Then he regained his countenance. " Rath? Are you sure about that? It could be a shapeshifter".

" That had been my first thought, too. But it was him, right down to the last detail. Nicolai made a clone of him with some of his blood and hair. I don´t know how, I just know he did", Maria would have like the thought more that it had been a shapeshifter. Then she wouldn´t have felt so guilty for letting him down. Him and his family.

Nolak brushed his hand through his slightly thinning dark hair. Now that was a factor they couldn´t have planned. Fk, another problem in their already huge list of things that haven´t went as they should. Hopefully Khivar didn´t already know about the hidden strenght in her, that would really blow their whole tactic. After all he would want to possess her power and use it against the universe. Damn bastard, he knew something or he wouldn´t have hesitated to get Rath into the play. And although they had the more powerful creature on their side, it could still be obstacle. Especially if Maria had feelings for her past lover, which could be a possibility. Thankfully they had time to think about something. That would give them a little room to prepare a really good attack. " We could still use it for our advantage. If he´s indeed the real deal as you say, he will still have the bond you shared".

Maria was surprised about this aspect of the situation. That had been something she hadn´t considered or she forgot. Of course it could be that the connection with him was still intact, after all Michael had felt it, too and he had just the essence of Rath. But she wouldn´t count on it. " I don´t know. We shouldn´t discard the option, but we also shouldn´t bet on it".

" Hey sweety, look who I found", Tess entered the room again, a small bottle of water in her right hand and some salty cracker in her other. Behind her the rest of their friends was standing and looked cautiously through the now open door.

Nolak turned to the young teens waiting for a sign that they could enter or at least a word of allowance. Sighing loudly he faced Maria again and told her quietly that they would continue their talk later. After he got a nod, he stood up from the place on the bed, said goodbye to the others and then disappeared from the room.

Maria rubbed her face and hoped that she didn´t look so bad anymore. She didn´t want to scare her friends. They would just think something was wrong with her and they would worry. Both things she didn´t want. " Why don´t you come in?".

" We didn´t know if you wanted company or not", Kyle hesitantly stepped through the door and sat on the spot Nolak had vacated just moments ago. He had been scared when he he noticed that she was gone without telling anybody anything. And the feeling got worse when he heard about the break up. Something had been happening in the time she had been missing.

Maria smiled at her brother. He was always so damn sweet and knew what to do to make her feel a little better, even if he didn´t say anything funny at all. Sometimes just his presence was needed and she wasn´t sad anymore. " Sorry for bailing on you in the hospital. I just couldn´t stay there anymore".

Kyle took his sisters hand and patted it lovingly. He understand what she had been through and couldn´t hold it against her. For the first time he had felt everything she had felt. The fear, the anger and then the sadness. It hadn´t been an easy decision for her, despite what everyone else thought. " Don´t worry about that".

" How are you?", Liz released the hand of her boyfriend and joined the siblings on the bed. Her best friend was looking like she went through hell and back, which was even true in some kinda twisted way. How else was her behaviour to explain? She had to have a good reason for ending her relationship with Michael.

Maria took a swig from the water bottle Tess had brought her and opened the little bag of crackers. Delightfully she bit into one and imagined herself eating a thick, greasy cheeseburger. Strange, minutes ago already the thought of food was triggering her gag reflex. And now she could stomach half a cow with onion rings and the largest chocolate milkshake humans had seen. " I´m feeling better", and that wasn´t even a lie. " How is Alex doing? Did you have time to talk to him?".

Liz grinned at her friend to take away the worry. " Don´t bother to have pity with him. He´s playing the injured hero in front of Isabel. She´s treating him like he saved the world and does everything he wishes for. Hopefully she never figures out that Alex hadn´t been exactly truthfull to her or there will be hell to pay".

" Lucky for him my sister is too relieved that he´s alive, that she wouldn´t even find it out when someone would spell it out for her", Max finally entered the conversation. He had hung back because he was afraid about Marias condition. The last time she broke down, they died. But thankfully she got a little color back in her face.

Maria was glad to hear that. But she sensed that everybody was just trying to avoid one topic. The break up with Michael. She looked at the faces of her friends and wondered what kind of bitch they thought she was, dumping her boyfriend after he almost died. " I know why you´re all here", she saw the shocked and surprised expressions and knew she had their attention." But I won´t, no I don´t have to justify my decision in front of you. If you can´t accept that, then I´m sorry, because I won´t change my mind".

Kyle faced the others and prepared himself to pummel everybody disagreeing with his sister. But that wasn´t necessary, because nobody dared to say something. They all were silently staring at her, probably building their own opinion about the situation in their minds. " I´m behind you. Even if I can´t understand why you did what you did".

" I can partly understand you and I won´t rip your head off like I intented to do. But I´m still a little pissed at you for hurting my brother", Tess would be neutral with the little quarrel between them. However she couldn´t guarantee that she could hold back a few comments once in a while. Her roommate should get her body armour out of the closet, because even if she looked innocent, she could be more poisonous like a snake, especially when it concerned her family.

Maria could respect the opinion. She would do the same thing if something like that would happen to her brother. So she couldn´t hold that against her friend. With a small nod she acknowledged the deal between them. Then she glanced to other three person in the room. Max and Liz were openly giving her their support and they would back her up no matter her decision. Relieved she let herself slump deeper into the bedding, feeling the strain on her body for the first time. The last few hours had been worse than she thought. " I don´t want to be rude, but I´m wasted".

Kyle realized that his sister was in a dire need of rest. They didn´t know what happened to the hours she had been gone, but she would tell them in her own time. One thing he learned from her, she wasn´t exactly the type to share everything with the people around her. However if it was important she would find the time to do it. Slightly smiling he bent down and kissed her forehead. " Alright. Call me if you need me. Or if you just wanna talk".

" Okay", Maria snuggled into the cover. She felt like a child getting a good night kiss from the parents or getting tucked in. Strangly she missed the times her father would carry her to bed and then stay with her until he was sure that the bad things in her closet had disappeared.

Tess squeezed her friends hand before she stood up together with Kyle. It was obvious that they both would sleep in one room tonight. Wishing a good night they both made a hasty retreat out the door, closely followed from Max and Liz, who seemed exactly eager to go. They just managed a short good night before they were gone.

Maria watched the pairs walking out. Hand in hand they were on the way to the rooms they would be sharing for the night and celebrate that nobody died. They would kiss, talk, kiss some more and then stop talking for a long time. Sadly she looked around and noticed the shadows all across the room. It seemed like they wanted to mock her and show her things she would miss or would never have the chance to do. With tears in her eyes she faced the nightstand where a picture of her and Michael was standing. They had been so happy when Kyle had made the snapshot of them. She had been sitting at the tree in the middle of the campus and had tried to solve the problem in her business class when Michael startled her from behind. He had held a voilet flower in front of her face and said that he missed her. Touched she had kissed him deeply. In that moment Kyle had shot a picture of this moment, which was now a reminder about what never could be. Finally she grasped what she had done and everything tumbled down around her. Taking the photo, she pressed it tightly at her chest before weeping bitterly.

**That night**

Maria was standing on a beach. The water was calm and clear, the sand under her feet warm and the sky so blue that it looked like a painting. Just a small breeze was waving through the air and let her long hair fly around her head while a smell of sunlotion and the deeply scent of the ozean was hanging thickly over her. The flimsy light green sundress was following the movement of her hair and did nothing to cover her body. With closed eyes she inhaled the salty air and let the peace wash over her. For a small amount of time she felt relaxed and really happy, like nothing in this place could hurt her or be taken away from her. The quiet was soothing her damaged soul and gave her mind a litte rest from worrying about everything. Suddenly something stumbled near her and crashed in front of her feet. Worriedly she bent down to the bundle lying on the ground and noticed that it was a young girl.

" Are you okay, kiddo?".

The girl looked up at her startled and a slightly embarrassed. Maria was shocked for a second when she saw the sparkling brown eyes and the blond hair. Except for the eyes she was the exact copy of her when she had been eight or nine years old. Scared she stepped a little back, in case this was a trap. Strangly the girl didn´t seem to fear her and just calmly stood up to knock the sand out of her clothes. " Don´t be afraid. I´m not here to hurt you".

Maria raised an eyebrow. She would be the judge if she could trust this mini version of her or not. And it wasn´t looking good for her right now. " What are you doing here, then?".

" I´m just a guide. Well my brother is part of that, too. But he´s late as usual", the girl glanced around and searched the area for the missing person.

Maria used the opportunity to eye her opponent closer. The small thing couldn´t be older than ten, maybe eleven at the most. But something in her behaviour let her appear more mature than the average kids in this age. " Who are you?".

The girl turned towards her and smiled. " Me and my brother don´t have a name yet. But you can choose one if it makes you feel better".

" Okay. How about I call you Belle", the name seemed to fit. Besides Maria always had dreamed about naming her daughter like that someday. It had such a nice ring to it and reminded her about Gone with the wind.

The girl grinned happily and her eyes seemed to twinkle full of joy. The expression let her look like a small fairy princess. " I´d like that", then her face lost the youth and a shadow passed over it. Fearful she scanned the surrounding. " We have to go. We´re not safe here".

Maria looked around and didn´t see anything that would be dangerous. They were alone and most important heavily armed. Besides it was just a dream, nothing could harm them in this place. But all of the sudden she heard a rumble in the distance. Startled she whirled around and witness a black hole was appearing out of thin air and was swallowing everything in sight. Shocked she gripped Belle´s hand and started to run away with her. The sand under their feet was making their escape a little difficult and the pull from the sucking behind them wasn´t a big help either. But strangly Maria put as much strength in her legs and managed to come forward. For a moment she turned her head around to look how much distance she had put between them and the black nothing. However it was like their feets hand´t moved an inch and the hole was fastly making its way towards them. Scared she put Belle behind her and faced the thing threatening the calm. Alright, if they couldn´t flee from it, they had to destroy it. Breathing deeply she reached into the darkest corner of her soul and dragged it in the light. With a primal scream she released a blast that knocked her off of her feet and let her world go black. Sometime later she heard small voices near her. They were talking quietly and she just understood a few sentences.

" _She saved my life. And she scared away the nothing", that was Belle._

" _Yeah. It´s her job to do that. She has to protect us and fend off the dark. She´s the warrior after all", that was the voice of a boy. Probably the same age as the girl._

" _But she doesn´t know about that. She risked her life for me, even without knowing who I am"._

" _That won´t change anything. We´re not allowed to say something until she figures it out for herself. And I hope you keep that promise"._

Maria had enough that they were talking like she wasn´t there. Groaning, because every part of her body felt like it survived a car crash, she rested on her ellbows and looked at the small children sitting in front of her. Relieved she noticed that Belle was alright and healthy. Then she let her gaze wander to the boy besides her. She almost swallowed her tongue at his appearance. It was like he was a mini version of Michael. At least what she could still remember from the day he watched over her in Disneyland. Strangly the boy´s eyes were not brown like she was used to, but rather a darker green. Confused she shook her head and realized for the first time that they were in some kinda cave or something close to that. It was oddly homey even if it was bare and sparse. " Where am I?".

Belle ignored the shifting of her brother and went to her. " You´re home", after she received a rather shocked expression she realized how it must have sounded. " Not Antar. Roswell"

" What is going on here? Who are you really? How do you know about Antar? What am I doing here?", Maria just had wanted to have a little break from the real world. Now she didn´t even had peace in her own dreams anymore. Was this another trick of Nicolai to weaken her?

Now the boy finally stepped into the conversation. His green eyes were daring her to make a wrong move and he would gladly kill her. " We are the one asking the questions".

Maria glared at the little brat. Who did he think he was? She was older and more mature and much more powerful than him. Great, now she was behaving like a child herself. Couning things she could do better. Very mature of her. Getting her anger in check she faced the boy. " Hey, I don´t know you, but I´m not against smacking the younger generation, okay"

" Yeah whatever", the boy crossed his arms over his chest and didn´t let his gaze waver from her. Like he wanted to keep an eye on her, so that she couldn´t do something to them. Like he wanted to protect his sister.

Maria bristled about the coldness and was close to choke him. But then she remembered that she was older and should behave like that, too. And yet something in her screamed that he was annoying like Rath had been. Startled she stopped in her train of thoughts. After a while she shook herself. No, that couldn´t be. " Alright. Why don´t you tell me what I´m doing here?".

Belle looked apologetically at her. She seemed to have expected that from her brother already. " You were send here to look for answers. We have to lead you to them".

" Great. Couldn´t you have waited a little longer for that? I just broke up with my boyfriend, my friends barely escaped an explosion and my body is on strike right now. I just want to have a nice peaceful sleep", Maria rubbed her face wasted. She didn´t have the strength to listen to things that involved the war between them and their enemy. They could have at least given her a few days to recover from everything until they bombarded her with information again. She was in an instable condition at the moment.

The boy jumped to his feet at that and the anger was pouring out of every pore in his body. His glance was almost burning her with rage. " We don´t have time to cuddle you. I´m sorry if we´re not fitting into your time shedule".

Belle followed her brother and stood up from the ground as well. Fearless she put herself in his sight and gripped his shoulders roughly. Too roughly for someone so small and delicate. Maybe the girl had more strength than it appeared. " Don´t start now. We went through it time and time again. We do what we were told to do".

" Fine. I don´t care anyway. She didn´t care the last time, why should it be different now", for the first time the boy seemed to lose the fight and his expression was replaced with a mask of indifference. Just a tiny second he showed an emotion, when his eyes meet those of Maria. In those seconds she saw fear and sadness before he turned away from her.

Belle took the face of her brother in her hands and made him look at her. She wanted to have his undivided attention when she talked to him. " She didn´t know about us then".

The boy shook off the grip of his sister and pushed her slightly away from him. " It doesn´t matter. We have to bring her to the secret chamber".

" The what?", Maria felt like she was in a movie, where she didn´t know what it was about nor had any idea where it would lead. All these information and she couldn´t grasp a real thought. They talked about her past self, so much did she realize. But how did they knew Marianna?

Belle wiped a few tears from her face before she turned to her. " Just follow us", then she and her brother started marching through a small passage in the cave wall.

Maria was torn between staying where she was and hoping that she would wake up in the next few minutes or going with them and probably got slaughtered in her sleep. But she was also curious what they had to show her. Maybe it was a weapon or it was some kinda power or even a person who would give her all the answers she needed. Debating with herself she didn´t even notice her feet already dragging her after the two children. Carefully she followed them and observed the walls around her. They seemed to tell a story with the scratches, holes and markings on them. Strangly it wasn´t as dark as it should have been in a cave and she wondered where the lights were coming. Unfortunately she didn´t find anything and put the blame on her imagination. Then after they walked over enough stony path, passed a few tunnels and Maria bumped her head at a low stone ceiling, they finally arrived at a massive steel door, which by the way looked pretty out of place. Surprised she witnessed Belle waving her hand over a spot at the door and opened itself automatically after a mechanic voice told that the access was granted. At this point Marias eyebrows were nearly under her hairline, which got only worse when she stepped into the room, where a thing that look like a huge crystal was standing. It was shimmering in all those great colors and launched a humming noise.

" I saw that thing on Antar. Mael showed it to me and Rath when we got our armour. It hadn´t been ready then. How did it get here?", Maria was overwhelmed about the power she could feel coming from it. Slowly she stepped closer to it and touched the surface tenderly. As smooth as she had imagined it and slightly cold.

The boy trailed after her and was angry at the obvious awe about something that wasn´t even alive. " It´s the granilith. Larek and Nolak took it with them. It´s pretty dangerous in the wrong hands and can kill everybody who can´t handle the raw power from it".

Maria heard the obvious disdain in his voice. What did he have against her? He was showing her nothing than seething hatred since she was here. He was slowly reminding her about her half brother Nicolai. Maybe she should name him like that. " Interesting. Could come in handy in a battle".

" That´s the reason why we were showing you it. If anybody is capable of contolling this thing it´s you", Belle shoved her brother aside and pointed with a finger in another direction. With her eyes she told him that he should go. Then she turned her attention back to the other girl. " But that´s just a theory. We didn´t check it out yet and we have to warn you. Just use it in an extreme emergency or if you don´t have another option left".

Maria glanced down at her and saw something that touched her deeply. She saw herself in the girls eyes. Kneeling down to be on the same level she grabbed Belle´s face and kissed her cheek. " Thank you", then she scanned the area around them and noticed that someone was missing. " Where´s your brother?".

Belle smiled at her and there was this light twinkle again. " He is where he´s supposed to be".

" Okay, you don´t have it a bit more cryptic, do you?", Maria wasn´t sure if the punch on her head was responsible for her mind to talk in riddles or if she finally really lost her sanity. But then something smelled fishy at the picture. " Why did he leave you alone?".

Belle looked over her shoulder at something. Something that obviously just she could see, because Maria saw nothing. " I´m never alone. We´re always together. And now I have to follow him".

Maria didn´t want to say goodbye just yet. There was so much she wanted to know, so much question she could ask as long as she had the chance. But she felt that their time was up. " Will I ever see you again?".

" Of course. We´re always with you. You just have to look for us".

Maria just wanted to ask how she should do that, when Belle disappeared in front of her eyes. For a few seconds she stared at the spot where the small girl had been standing before she left the cave herself. Minutes later she opened her eyes and looked around her room at campus. Slowly she sat up and glanced out of the window, where the sun was already in the process to appear on the horizont. She had slept through the night and yet she didn´t feel any rested. On the contrary she felt worse than before. It was like something heavy would sit on her heart and it had started as soon as she had left the cave in her dream. Rubbing her face and wiping the sweat from her forehead she promised herself to never go to sleep with an empty stomach. She just got strange dreams from it.


	56. Chapter 56

**Thanx to RedJewel2662.**

**Chapter 54 Lonely with a broken heart**

Hours later Maria was still lying in her bed and thinking about the implication of her dream. Had it been a sign for the upcoming war ahead of them or was it rather a symbolic message from her subconsciousness? That would at least explain the two children, who were looking like her and Michael, the people she trusted the most. But what did it mean exactly? Alright, it was about the granilith and the power it held. She was somehow the key to this thing, theoretically. Which in turn meant she was the one that could end this war by using it as a weapon. Why hadn´t Larek or Nolak told her about this thing? Didn´t they trust her with it? Or was she too " young" to know about it? One day she would have a serious talk with them both about the lack of trust in her. And then there was another question plaguing her mind. Why hated the boy from the dream her so much? She didn´t do anything to him and he treated her like the enemy. The next time she would see him, she would forget that she was the mature one and behave the same way. Shaking her head she rolled to the side to look on her alarm clock and make out how late it already was. Wow, it was almost 10 in the morning and she hadn´t even packed her things together. Sadly her eyes wandered for a few seconds besides her alarm clock and to the picture with Michael she had put there last night again. For a moment she was tempted to lay it face down so that it couldn´t taunt her anymore. They didn´t have any chance from the beginning and she had known it. Yeah, that was the result when you tried to beat destiny, you were lying in your bed and nursed a broken heart. Cursing her weakness she took the photo complete with frame and threw it with all her might at the door. Just then Tess open it and barely got hit from the flying object. Startled she ducked and the frame hit the wall behind her with a loud clash.

" Woah. What possessed you?".

Maria hadn´t meant to hurt anybody. She just wasn´t in the best mood right now and the strange look she got from her roommate wasn´t making it better. " Sorry. That wasn´t meant for you".

Tess turned around and saw the broken frame lying on the ground. Glas splinter were around it and a single photograph in the middle. It was of Maria and Michael, both lost in their kiss. Walking to the spot, she kneeled down and picked it up. Why had her friend thrown it? Confused she stood up and marched back into the room. " What is wrong with you? First you break up with my brother and then you destroy a picture of you both. It´s like I don´t know you anymore".

" I don´t wanna talk about it", Maria flung the blanket from her body and jumped out of bed. Angrily she walked to her wardrobe and started to rip her clothes from the hanger. Carelessly she dropped them behind her, not even paying attention where they landed. It didn´t matter anyway, she just wanted to look busy, so that her roommate would leave her alone.

Tess knew a diversion when she saw one, she had enough practice with Michael. But she wouldn´t let herself shake off so easily. " Tough! I won´t leave this room until you tell me why you had to break my brothers heart. And believe me, when it comes to patience nobody can beat me".

Maria stopped clearing her wardrobe and slumped on the ground defeated still with her back turned to her friend. Tears were slowly making its way down her face. " Can´t you drop it, please".

" No. Not when it obviously hurts you as much as it hurt Michael. I know your reason isn´t the absence of feelings. But I don´t understand why break something so beautiful off when it´s obvious that you´re both feeling the same", Tess softened instantly when she heard the sadness in her roommates voice and saw the shaking of the body.

Maria tried to wipe her face dry. But everytime a new wave of tears were making it impossible for her. Why couldn´t they just leave her alone. She had her reasons and they had to accept it. " You wouldn´t understand it. You weren´t there the last time. You didn´t see everyone you loved die around you or held your lover in your arms as he took his last breath".

Tess almost got knocked over from the intensity of the emotions coming towards her. There was so much pain and sorrow mixed with fear and fury. It was strange, she wasn´t an empath like Michael but she could feel it like they were her own feelings. How could Maria live like this? She just experienced a small part of it and it was already too much for her. Tears were shooting in her eyes and she immediately kneeled behind her friend and wrapped her arms around her. " I´m sorry. I didn´t know".

" I´m sorry, too. I didn´t want to hurt Michael in any way. But in the long run it´s for the best. For the both of us. Although I feel like someone is tearing my heart apart piece by piece at the moment, I think I did the right thing", Maria let everything out. She cried for the people who had died for her, for the people who would still die for her and for the people she lost. She cried for Rath, for Zan, for Vilandra, for Ava, for Salem, for Mael, for her mother, for Lutezia, for Hewik and for herself. So many lifes lost because she hadn´t been strong enough.

Tess held on tighter onto her friend and tried to give her a bit of her strenght. She had been through so much in the last few days that it was even a wonder that she hadn´t broken down before. Soothingly Tess stroked the back of her roommate and rocked her gently while whispering comforting things in her ear. Suddenly the door behind them opened quietly and Kyle stepped into the room, just in time to witness his sister crying openly in the arms of his girlfriend. At first he thought about making his presence known, but then changed his mind. Maybe he should leave the two girls alone and come back later. Unfortunately for him his big clumsy feet upset his plans and he tripped over a shirt Maria had thrown over her shoulder. Loudly he crashed to the ground and made a noise that would have even awoken the dead. Startled both girls jumped to their feets and stretched their arms out to defend themself with their powers.

" Stop. Don´t shoot. It´s just me", Kyle covered his head with his hands. He wanted to prevent them from ruining his good looks. Damn, now he was slowly turning into Alex, falling on his face everytime and behaving like a wimp.

Tess was the first one to crack. Even if she had been sad seconds ago, this picture chased it away. Slowly releasing her fighting stance, she bit her lip from breaking out in laughter before kneeling down to her boyfriend. " Everything alright?".

Kyle broke off his cover and looked up at the amused face above him. Yeah now she was mocking him, too. A minute ago she was all weepy and now she was two seconds away from laughing her ass off at him. Damn women and their damn mood swings. " Yeah. Nothing hurt. Except for my pride".

" Oh big baby", Tess help the wounded man on his feet and checked him for any injuries, which weren´t there. He was just making a big fuss like always. " Why did you sneak up on us like that? We could have easily killed you, you know".

Kyle looked past his girlfriend and watched his sister trying to destroy any evidence of her tears. But he could still see the red sopping nose and the red rims around her eyes. The last time he had seen her in this condition had been when she was ten and her goldfish Gordy had been lying on his back in the water glass. The worst thing was to pity her, then she would feel more aweful. " Hey, I wanted to make an escape before you got the idea to cry on me or something".

Maria was grateful for the little humour. He always was the only one knowing how to handle her moods, no matter which it was. " Oh Kyle, for that comment I will tell mom about your headwound and that you need bed rest for a few days".

" Oh come on. You can´t do that", he hoped that she didn´t, because as much as he loved his mother, she could totally overreact when one of her children was ill or had just a small scratch. Then she called every two minutes to see if everything was alright, almost drowned them in her strange tea and didn´t let them leave the bed.

Maria saw the panic in his eyes and she already felt a little better. She was so damn glad to have him as her brother, even if she often complained about him. He was most of the times a freaking pain in the ass, but when it push came to shove he was the most loyal person you could have at your side. " I can and I will".

Kyle stuck his tongue out at his sister. Sometimes he wondered what he did wrong in his last life to deserve her. But he was relieved to see her in a better shape again. He hated when she was sad or cried, because then he felt helpless to do something. " You´re mean, you know that?".

" Yeah", Maria finally noticed the mess she had made with her clothes. Everywhere on the floor were lying t-shirts, jackets, sweater and tops. She was glad that she hadn´t been starting with the bureau where her underwear was in. " Oh my god! What have I done!".

Tess followed the view of her roommate and saw the destruction herself. She hadn´t even realized that it had been that much clothing. The floor looked like the wardrobe exploded and flung everything out. " Great. Now we have to clean the mess **and** pack our things together".

Kyle backed slowly towards the door. He had already all his things in the trunk of his car, but he promised his girlfriend to stow away everything from Michael. Thankfully his roommate wasn´t like his sister or else he would have needed the whole day to pack. " Now that you mention it, I have to go. We´ll see each other at the Camaro in two hours", a short wave of his hand and he disappeared through the door faster than lightning.

Tess and Maria laughed about his hasty escape. Just the mention of work and he scramed. Rolling their eyes they took care of the many items lying on the ground and threw them on the bed. After that they used their powers to fold their clothes to a seize that they fit perfectly in their suitcases.

**Two hours later**

Kyle was already waiting at his car and passed the time with making weird faces when Tess and Maria walked in his direction, loaded with their suitcases and small bags. They were rather funny looking with the rushed expressions and their hands full, trying to be on time for once. Like usual they had to discuss something, because they were chattering while balancing their things and almost running towards him. He wondered if he would see the day when girls had nothing to say, but he was sure that it wouldn´t give such a day ever. No matter what religion, skin color, height, weight or age every woman had to express herself.

" Finally. What have you been doing? Packing for the whole building?".

Tess shot his boyfriend a look that meant he should keep his mouth closed if he ever wanted to lay a hand on her in any kind again. " Shut up and help us".

Kyle raised an eyebrow at her. He was a sick sick boy, because this commanding tone was really turning him on. But he couldn´t let her know this or he would be her slave for eternity. Although the thought wasn´t so bad at all, he didn´t think that the guys would overlook it and tease him with it. " You forgot the magic word"

" Please still today", Tess smiled sweetly at him and fluttered her eyelashes seductively. Blowing him a hand kiss she turned her attention back to roommate, who was in the process to squeeze her luggage in the trunk of the car and the rest on the backseat. " You sure you won´t change your mind?".

Maria fought out a battle with the damn backpack of hers. The damn thing didn´t want to fit into the trunk, although she knew that it worked the last time. Fed up with the freaking shit, she used her powers to shrunk the suitcase of her brother. Now everything was nicely stowed away. Grinning she closed the trunk and knocked softly on it. " For the upteenth time yes. I won´t say goodbye to your brother. Tell him I hope he feels better soon, but nothing else".

Tess knew that her friend could be stubborn, but that was ridiculous. She was as bad as Michael if not worse. But there was still one trump in the game. " But you will be at the hospital anyway. You will say goodbye to Alex, won´t you?".

" Sorry to disappoint you. I phoned with Alex while you had been showering. He´s feeling better by the way and the doctor told him that they would transfer him to the hospital in Roswell and I will visit him there", Maria had everything covered. As much as she wanted to see how Michael was, she couldn´t do that, not when the pain was still so fresh. Maybe she would call him in a few days to hear about his well being, but not now.

Tess was close to stomp her feet like a little brat, who didn´t get her way. She wouldn´t give up and if she had to stay here until they were old. " And what about his things? We can´t just leave it in his room".

Maria was prepared for every question thrown her way. Amused she glanced quickly to her brother, who was watching them and then back at her friend. " Liz already took care of that. She´s probably already on her way to Roswell by now. And before you ask Max and Isabel have also their luggage. We´re the last to leave from our group".

" Dammit. Okay you win this time, but don´t think I will be giving up", Tess relented her urge and really stomped her foot. But after her quick trip to her childhood she came back to the present and hugged her roommate wholeheartly. After all it would be a while before they would see each other again. " Do me a favour and keep an eye on Kyle. And take it easy for a few days. I want to see you rested and healthy the next time".

Maria squeezed her tightly at her body. She was so used to have her around that it would probably get boring without her. Fastly she blinked away the tears threatening to spill when she thought about being apart from Michael. " Yeah right back at ya. And tell your brother that his life will be better without me".

Tess released her friend and wiped the wet spots from her cheeks. She had to laugh when she saw tiny teardrops hanging on the others girl eyelashes. Great, they were behaving like they would never see each other again. They just parted for a week top. " Like he will believe that".

" Someday he will realize I was right", Maria just hoped that she could believe it herself. At least long enough that she could keep Michael safe and stay away from him. She shook her head when she heard a cough that sounded like her brother. Rolling her eyes she pushed her friend towards Kyle. " Yeah yeah. Here´s your damn girlfriend".

Tess almost tripped over own feet and half fell, half walked in the awaiting arms of her lover. She would miss him to pieces. They already exchanged phone numbers and promised to call daily until they would see each other again. But it was hard to part under these circumstances. " I hope you´ll stay out of trouble and no other women".

Kyle smirked at her while his arms pulled her tighter at his body. Like he needed another woman in his life. It was already bad enough that he was surrounded by three of them at home. " Don´t worry about that. You´re all I need".

" You better or else you have to deal with me, my brother and your sister", and she was dead serious about that. He made a wrong move or even looked at another woman funny, he was getting into trouble with her, Michael and Maria, three people he shouldn´t piss off.

Kyle noticed that his girlfriend wasn´t kidding and was kind of relieved that he was the faithful type in a relationship. If he gave somebody his heart and got one in return he made sure that it stayed this way as long as it was possible. " Ok, I´ll try to remember that", slowly he bent down and kissed her. Long and tenderly. " I love you".

A little dazed about the mind blowing kiss she received Tess needed a few seconds to register what her boyfriend just told her. Giddily she grinned happily at him. " I love you, too".

" Great, now that´s cleared we can finally get a move on", Maria was a little bit miffed about the sick display of affection. Angrily she huffed while she slumped back in the front seat after closing the window. But then she felt bad for getting jealous at her brother. It wasn´t his fault that he had a good going relationship.

Kyle bit back a reply that was lying on the tip of his tongue. He would cut her some slack because she just broke up with her boyfriend, but as soon as she was better he would letting her comments slide so easily. With a last kiss for Tess he said goodbye and watched her walking to the Dodge. After she was inside the car, he himself got into the camaro and started it.

**Close to Roswell**

The long drive had been pretty quiet and that was strange, because Maria usually couldn´t keep her mout shut for a few seconds. Except for three small breaks, she had to pee and one was for throwing up the many food she ate an hour before, she didn´t utter a word. At one point Kyle was concerned with the shape of his sister. He had never seen her that way and definitely not in this bad condition. All his question if she was ill or if she caught something were anwered with monosyllables. Just before they reach their hometown she started to feel better and even talked a few sentences with her brother. It was just something unimportant, but at least she said something. She told him about the things she wanted to do as long as they were at home, namely spending more time with Lindsey and their family in general. She wasted too much time with meeting friends, working, shopping and engaged in her hobbies, that she needed this time out. It would do her good. She would enjoy the small vacation and if it would kill her. Kyle just hoped that she would stick to her plan, because he didn´t like his sister like that, so sickly and weak. Tess told him about her condition before he and the others came. She had been extremely worried about her friend and that in return made him pretty worried.

" Can we stop at the crashdown. I´m hungry".

Kyle startled out of his thoughts and turned his head in the direction of his sister. She looked healthier than a few hours ago and her skin color wasn´t that ashen anymore, the cheeks appeared rosier and her eyes seemed to have gotten their shine back, even if it was just tiny. " But you threw up your last food. Maybe you should eat something not so greasy".

Maria glanced at him and if she would have the power to kill him with her eyes she would have done so in this moment. If she wanted a greasy burger with greasy fries she would eat them, if he wanted or not. She was old enough to know what she could expect her stomach. Right now he was craving for unhealthy food. " That had been nothing. Besides I feel a lot better now".

" I´m worried about you. You´re looking bad since yesterday and even Tess noticed that somethings not right. Is there anything I can do for you? Do you want to talk about something with me? You know I´m here for you right? You can tell me everything", Kyle took her hand and squeezed it lovingly. As much as they annoyed each other constantly, they stuck together like glue when one of them was sad, angry or sick. Maybe it was part of their twin bond, but it was comforting to know that at least one person would always be at your side, no matter what.

Maria was touched about the offer, but she wouldn´t need it. She was just in a down right now, nothing too serious or even to worry about. After all she went through the last few days it was even a wonder that she was standing at all and then the break up with Michael. Her body just reacted to that. It wasn´t like she had a deadly illness or something. " I know that. But I can assure you that I´m fine. I just ran out of steam. You´ll see, a few days at home and pampered from Mom and I´m as good as new".

Kyle wasn´t so sure if he should believe her or not. He knew that there was more than she told everybody. Although Tess told him that Nolak said everything was under control and they shouldn´t concern themself with this problem, he was wondering if they didn´t take everything too lightly. Especially when he remembered the story about their past lifes and what happened there. " Promise me that. I want my sister back".

" Don´t sound so melodramatic. I´m just feeling a bit under the weather", at least she hoped that was the problem at all. Since the attack and the things that happened afterwards she didn´t feel like herself anymore. It was like some other person was at her place and she was just watching from the outside. Sometimes she wondered if Nicolai or even Rath were trying to manipulate her mind from afar. But as much as she knew Rath didn´t have the gift to do that and Nicolai wasn´t that powerful.

Kyle seemed to accept that and finally steered the camaro in the direction of the crashdown. If his sister wanted something to eat, she would get something to eat. But she wouldn´t move one leg out of the car. He didn´t trust her to walk yet. " Okay. What do you wanna eat?".

Maria went through the menu mentally and everything was sounding delicious to her at the moment. She could stomach something really rich in calories with no vitamins. Something that was spicy and hot and fat. " I can´t decide yet, but that will change as soon as I step foot in the crashdown".

" You´re not going inside. I´ll get something for us and then we´ll drive straight home where you lie down immediately", and this time he wouldn´t take a no for an answer or some silly excuse. This time she had to do what he said and if he had to knock her out to manage that. Although she could kill him without lifting a finger, he had his ways to bring his arguments across, especially when it came to his family.

Maria was slightly amused about the behaviour of her brother. He was sometimes so overprotective towards his sisters that she wondered if it was a sibling thing or if it was a male trait. If she wouldn´t be so hungry and tired she would protest, because she didn´t need him hovering over her like a mother hen. But thankfully she wasn´t herself right now and so she swallowed her reply. " Ok. Then bring me an eclipse burger with saturn rings, a piece of men in black pie and a really thick chocolate shake".

Kyle was momentarily shocked, because his sister didn´t fight him or give him hell for treating her like an invalid. But then he saw that she didn´t have the strength to put up a fight with something so small. Now he worried more than before. Maybe he should call Brody and tell him about Maria. If someone could help it was him. " Your order is noted", he let his gaze wander back to the road and he detected an parking spot in front of the crashdown. Quickly he put his car there and turned off his engine. " Stay here. I´ll be back soon".

" Alright", snuggling her body deeper into the car seat she closed her eyes and tried to find a little sleep. She had made an attempt to do that during the drive, but her stomach had rebelled everytime she came to the deep sleep phase. But now, except for the tiredness, she was feeling better.

Kyle eyed his sister concerned and hoped that she was soon back to her old self. This version of her was kinda scaring him. Withouth saying anything he stepped out of the car and tried to close the door as quietly as possible. Then he walked into the crashdown to get something to bite for the both of them.

Maria meanwhile found her way into the dreamzone, that´s what she always called the stage where you´re between wake and sleep. When she had been a child she often had imagined herself in some fairytale land where pixies, unicorns and speaking flowers lived. The river was made out of limonade, the grassland from bubble gum and cotton candy was growing on the trees. The sun always shone and it never got dark, everybody was happy and they were dancing all day long. She had enjoyed to spent her time at this place. But when she looked now at the world she created a shiver went down her spine. Everything was grey and dead. No sun, no trees, no magical creatures, no river and no green. It was a sight that reminded Maria about a picture somebody had drawn in her class in Highschool. It had been about the world after an atombomb was fired. The place had been dark, bleak and without any hope. That was exactly what she felt when her eyes wandered around. What happened here? Why was everything beautiful gone? Where was it? And how could she get it back again? Suddenly she cringed when she heard a loud banging. Startled she turned around to see from where the noise was coming. But unfortunately she couldn´t find anything. Then she heard her name being called and she whirled in all direction. All of the sudden the ground beneath her opened up and arms shot out of it to pull her down. With a cry Maria opened her eyes and looked wildly around her. Her heart was beating out of control, sweat was on her forehead and her hands were shaking. Trying to get as much air in her lungs as possible she turned to the window to wind it down. Surprised she let out another yell when she saw a face there. Putting her hand on her chest she cursed quietly for being so jumpy. Calming down slightly she opened the door.

" Dammit Larek! What are you trying to do? You almost gave me a heart attack".

Larek usually would have let off some backhanded comments, but this time he just faced the girl in front of him with a worried expression. His normal mischief sparkling eyes were clouded with something dark. " Nolak had been right. You look like hell".

Maria was just in the process to look in the mirror to straighten her hair when she heard that. Why did everybody say that as soon as they saw her? Looking in the review mirror the first thing she noticed was the black rings under her eyes and the almost grey skin. " Oh shit. I can make the girl from the exorcist competition".

" Well, it´s not that bad yet", he winced slightly when he saw the glare directed at him. He should have just kept his mouth shut. Everytime he tried to make a compliment some part of his brain twisted the words around and what came out of his mouth was usually something totally different. Corly already kicked him out from her apartement a few times because of that. " Don´t you get enough sleep? Or is it because of the break up with Michael?".

Maria was close to explode or let somebody else explode, she hadn´t decided yet. But she was so sick to explain the same thing over and over again. " Bloody hell! Is there anybody not knowing that I parted with my boyfriend? Was it in the news or already in the morning mail?".

Larek stepped back in case she decided to kill him. Geez, he was just asking a question and she almost ripped his head off of his shoulders. What bug crawled up her butt and died there? " What is wrong with you? Why are you attacking me?".

" I´m sorry, I didn´t want to sound so angry. But everyone is asking me how I am or tells me that I look bad. My brother already treats me like I´m on the death bed, the others are afraid I´m about to crack and most of the time I don´t know what´s going on with me right now", Maria felt like a different person once in a while. It was like something possessed her and made her act out of control. She hated to feel like that and she didn´t know how she could stop it.

Larek would have gladly helped her if he would have known what was wrong with her. It seemed that whatever was going on with her was not of physically nature. It had been everything that happened the last days. It was just too much for her, the pressure, the worry, the fear and more importantly the thought she wasn´t strong enough. Carefully he pulled her in an embrace and caressed her hair. " It´s ok. It´s ok. I´m here if you need me. You can always come to me if everything is too much for you".

Maria felt tears prickling on the back of her closed eyelid. He was probably one of the only three people knowing how she had to feel at the moment, because he had been present when everything went down the last time. He saw the destruction, the meaningless fight they put up and the many mistakes they had made. Children, they had been too young to lead a battle, too naive to see the consequences of their actions and too stupid to know that they never stood a chance against Khivar and his army. " I know that. But I don´t need it. A little rest and a lot of mothering and I´ll be back on my feets again".

" What had the bastard done to you? Where is he so that I can rip his balls off of him and feed him with them".

Larek and Maria jumped apart when they heard the angry comment. Shocked they turned to the voice and saw a furious Corly standing near them, clad in her teal uniform and a sheepish looking Kyle in the background. She seemed to be ready to spit nails or at least smack someone, while the boy behind her just shrugged his shoulder.

Maria was glad to be in the car, in case it could get dangerous in the next few minutes. " What are you talking about?".

" About the bastard who had broken your heart! How could Michael break up with you after what happened", Corly was on the brink to strangle the closest person to her, which was Kyle right now and he seemed to sense that it could get ugly, because he made his way to the driver´s side, quickly.

Maria raised her right eyebrow questionly. How on earth did she come up with that? He didn´t drop her, it was the other way around. Suddenly a thought occured to her and she turned around to face her brother, who was grinning innocently at her. Yeah, innocent my ass. Sending him a mean glare she drew her attention on Corly again. " He didn´t. I was the one ending the relationship".

Corly´s anger disappeared instantly after she knew that fact. The furious expression made place for one of sympathy. Now she understood what was going on better. She had been shocked when she saw the building in Las Cruces crash. If not for the help of Lykus, who heard about the attack, more people would have been hurt or even died. Nolak had informed her already about everything. The news about Michaels injury had been a surprise for everybody, that Nicolai was behind it not so much, but that they had Rath on their side had been pretty bad. And the deal Maria got offered was worrying all, because they feared that Khivar might knew about her. " If you need a shoulder to cry on or someone listening to your problems, I´m here for you".

" Funny, I heard that a few times today. But at least you had the decency to not mention how bad I´m looking", glancing at her brother and Larek for emphasis her point she told them with her eyes that it wasn´t nice to say something so cruel to a girl. Especially in her condition.

Corly got the message and slapped her boyfriend on the back of his head. He was sometimes such a clumsy oaf. But he meant well most of the time and he had thankfully other qualities that made him so irresistible. " You have to excuse the male gender. They never learned to keep their mouth shut when it was suitable".

Kyle was affronted by that comment. Hey, he was worried about his sister and he was honest. He couldn´t just say that everything was fine, when it wasn´t like that. " I´m sorry to interrupt your man bashing conversation, but we have to go before our food gets cold".

" Ok. My offer still stands. If you need a friend, call me", Corly bent down and kissed Maria on the cheek. Then she closed the car door and watched the camaro driving away with a loud roar of the engine. For a few seconds she winked after them until they were out of sight. Only then she turned to her boyfriend. " Do you think she will make it? She looks so weak right now and Í´m afraid she´s not strong enough to stand a full blown war".

Larek laid an arm around her shoulder and pulled her at his side. He wanted to believe that everything would be going smoothly this time. But the more Maria tried to not make the same mistakes again, the more she made other mistakes. " We just have to wait and see".

**Valenti Residence**

Kyle and Maria finally made it home and parked the car in the driveway. Along the way they had to stop a few times, because people wanted to see for themself that they were unharmed. The story about the exploding building had spread like a wild fire and now every citizen of Roswell knew about the incident. Yeah, that happened when one lived in a small town and to top of it was the child of the sheriff. They both shook probably a hundred times the hand of someone or got their cheeks pinched. The food they had got from the crashdown was surely already cold and so was Kyle´s mood. He just wanted to go home, eat his burger and rest before the rest of the family was coming home. So at one point he just ignored everyone, stepped on the gas and didn´t stop until he stood in front of their house, which was looking strangly deserted. Of course that was usual at this time of the day, it was after all afternoon and Lindsey was in school, Jim roaming the streets looking for criminals and Amy was selling alien artifacts in her little shop. What Sean did the whole time neither of the siblings knew and were probably glad about that. Maria felt more at ease since she saw her home and she was so happy to see that it was still there. When she opened the door she breathed deeply in. The air here was smelling a lot better than it did in Las Cruces or maybe it was just her imagination. Just as she was in the process to get her things out of the backseat she was startled when her brother stormed towards her and pushed her from the car.

" Oh no. You´re not carrying these heavy things into the house. You take our food inside and eat. I´ll take care of everything else".

Maria was sick to be treated like a child, she wasn´t deathly ill or some weak little girly. " You know, I hate it that everybody looks at me like I´m on the brink to drop dead every minute or go ballistic. I´m not breaking down, I´m feeling fine and I won´t go crazy".

Kyle was aware of that and his head was telling him that his sister was the last person who would need his help. But he couldn´t fight against his protector nature. He was her brother and as that felt responsible for her. " We all love you and that´s the reason why we worry. You didn´t see you last night or else you wouldn´t be mad at us"

" Okay, yesterday wasn´t exactly my day, but that was to be expected. Neither of us had been on its best. I was even lucky to be out of the building when it crashed. And still everybody worries about me, although Alex had been in surgery and Michael broke a few rips", how logical was that? Two from their group were lying in the hospital, Tess and Kyle had been wounded and she hadn´t been there when the library tumbled down. Was she slowly losing her mind or were the other afraid of her, because she behaved so strange? Maybe something weird was going on here and she didn´t get it?

Kyle couldn´t understand why she downplayed herself so much. Did she think he wouldn´t find out about her meeting with her half brother and the bruised wrists? Max had told him everything and he had been shocked to even think about the possibility that his sister could have been dead right now. This Nicolai didn´t just kidnapp her for the fun of it. He must be having an agenda. The question was only, what? " They´re boys. They can take care of themself", he put up his hands, already knowing that this statement would result in a protest from his sister. " I know you´re not defenseless or weak either, yadda yadda, teflon babe, blah blah. But I was afraid yesterday. You were gone and I didn´t know where you had been or if you was hurt or even alive. I knew where to others were, just not you. So if I want to pamper you a little, let me".

Maria had to smile at her brother. He was slowly talking like her. How could she be mad at him when he was so adorable cute? Sometimes she wondered if he did this to soften her. She thought about kicking his ass for a second. But then she decided for another approach. Slowly she stepped closer to him, kissed his cheek and embraced him. " You´re a great brother and I love you. But as soon as I´m feeling better you stop with this helping a damsel in mistress act immediately, okay".

" Right away, promise".

Maria released her brother and grinned evily at him. Why shouldn´t she take advantage of his offer. He wanted to play her protector, he had to count with consequences. A few days top and he would wish he never had uttered a word about spoiling her. Carefully she took the bag with their food in it, threw her hair with a flick of her wrist over her shoulder. " Alrighty then. I will drag my frail body in the house and you can take the luggage, James", quickly she made a dash for the front door before Kyle noticed that she shrunk his suitcase a little to fit her things in the trunk. He wouldn´t be too delighted to see his clothes two numbers smaller.

Kyle shook his head while he pulled the backpack and his gym bag from the backseat. It seemed since they arrived in Roswell, his sister was looking a bit more herself again. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he thought she was more stronger than this morning. Hopefully a few days at home would bring her back on her feet and then there was a slight chance that she would change her mind about Michael. Last night he talked almost all night with Tess about everything that had been going on, about the crashing building, the kidnapping of Maria, the deal and the strange behaviour. His girlfriend had voiced that she was sure that his sister was somehow the key, because why else would Nicolai capure his biggest enemy and let her leave in one piece again? As strange as it sounded, he found the thought not so wrong, on the contrary it seemed be the only explainable answer. Now he was making his first priority to keep an eye on Maria and never leave her out of his sight too long. She might be powerful, but she was as vulnerable as anybody else and that notion was making him afraid. Rubbing his face wearily, he finally remembered that he shouldn´t think too much. It just tired him out. Walking to the trunk he opened it and the first thing that leaped to his eyes was the small suitcase. To be exact his narrowed suitcase. Usually he would have thrown a fit, but in this case he was glad. Now he didn´t have to carry two large and heavy trunks with the added small luggage. Why didn´t think Maria about something like that before? It would have spared him backaches at Thanksgiving. Smiling at the antics of his sister he took the remaining baggage and tried to balance everything at once. Oddly enough he managed to get everything inside without losing a piece or falling flat on his face. Dropping the things on the ground in the hall, he made his way into the living room, where his sister was already seated on the big beige couch and had the burger and the saturn rings spread on the low glas table in front of her. Her eyes were clued straight ahead to the tv, where Jerry Springer was on. Today the topic seemed to be about married couple who were living a double life with another families. Wrinkling his nose at her choice of tv station, he flopped on the spot besides her and pulled his food out of the bag.

" How can you watch this shit? It´s always the same. Either a boy cheated on his girlfriend, wife or fiance with the sister, the mother or even the brother or a woman earns her money on the streets selling her body".

Maria turned to her brother amused, her face stained with mustard and ketchup dapples. And the cheeks blown up like a chipmunk. Quickly she swallowed her food. " And how do you know that fact? Mmhhhh?".

Kyle smiled with his mouth full at her. Then he chewed it thoroughly and with all the time in the world. He was so thankful that his sister had so many useful gifts like heating things up. So he could enjoy every bit and would stall the answer as long as possible. There still had to be a few mysteries in their lifes after all. And his answer wasn´t that unusual. Tess loved this show and didn´t miss one if she could. Besides talkshows were identical, no matter who was presenting it. Slowly he licked his fingers after he finished his food and noticed the persisting glance from the side. Letting out a pretty loud burp he stood up from the couch. " Do you want something to drink, too?".

" Yeah. A bottle of water would be nice", Maria was glad that somewhere a small part from her brother had survived. Now she could finally relax, because she had been thinking that he had been possessed. But after he gave her audio proof that he was full and with that behaved like a pig, she was sure that she had been wrong in her assumption. Chuckling quietly she destroyed the evidence of their unhealthy meal and leant back. Bending her legs close to her body and laying her head on the armrest she watched a young man beating on another man. A woman was trying to interfere, but was easily pushed aside. Even the securities had problems keeping the wranglers apart. The audience was cheering and screaming at the bullies. Maria wished her problems would be so easy. A nice harsh rumble and everything was over. Unfortunately she didn´t have that luck, not in this life and not in her last. Sometimes she wished Larek would have known sooner about her curse and wouldn´t have carried out their plan. At least then Michael could live a happy, normal and safe life. Far away from her and the danger lurking inside her. She knew that somewhere deep inside where lying to answers she needed and that in time she would find them step by step. She just hoped she had enough time to figure everything out before it was too late. " Yeah. All I need is time".

Kyle came just in the room when he heard his sister. Looking around he searched for the person she was talking to, but found none. Great, either she was starting to get all Haley Joel Osment on him with her sixth sense and seeing dead people or it was finally time to call the guys with the white jacket. " Who are you talking to?"

Maria didn´t take her eyes from the tv while her brother was putting a small bottle of water on the table and took his seat besides her again. " Nobody. I was just thinking loud".

" I told you already you shouldn´t do that, your single brain cell won´t stand this much pressure", that earned him a small smile from her, although it wasn´t as geniune as it should be. Maybe it was the fact that she appeared like she would fall asleep every minute. Her eyes were just partly open and her reaction was rather slow. Softly he brushed her hair out of her face and eyed her properly. " You should go to bed and sleep. You look like you need it. Badly".

Maria snuggled her head more comfortable on the armrest. Her brother was right, she was pretty tired and all she wanted was too close her eyes and rest for a while. But she was afraid that her time was running out and she wasted it with minor things, instead of spending it with her family. " No. It´s alright".

Kyle sighed irritated. That girl was the most pain in the ass sibling on earth, maybe even in the universe. Why couldn´t she for once do as he said? Was it too much to see things his way? He was two minutes older and with that a little wiser than her. She was so damn stubborn in some things and it was reminding him about a special person in their lifes. No wonder Michael was so attracted to her, she was from the same batch as him and it was like they shared a brain or something. They were more alike than it was good. The world was doomed if his sister didn´t take back his roommate, because they were so made for each other that nobody else would have a chance with them. " Fine. Why do I even try?".

" Because you love to annoy me", Maria felt sleep pulling her deeper and deeper into the abyss of darkness and quiet. She wanted to fight it until after she had talked to her family and enjoyed their presence. But she noticed that it was harder than she thought, especially when her brother pulled her legs on his lap and made her more comfortable.

Kyle raised his eyebrow when he turned to her. Unfortunately she didn´t see his questioning face anymore, because sleep finally claimed her. Her eyes were closed and her breathing even. Really careful he put her legs aside, stood up from the couch and went to the closet in the hall. There he got a warm blanket from it before walking back into the living room and covering his sister with it. For a few moments he stayed with her and observed the relaxed expression on her face. The worry lines had disappeared and she just looked like an angel. A strange contrast to her wake self, where she rather appeared like a dark angel or even a cranky angel. He wished that she would open up and tell them what was bothering her, because he was sure as soon as she poured her heart out, she would feel better. But as usual she wanted to deal with everything herself until it would be too much for her and she had to ask for help. Sadly she always came when it was almost too late to do something. Bending down he kissed her forehead and prayed that she wouldn´t wait too long this time. It was looking like it was the only thing they didn´t have anymore.

**Hours later**

Maria heard a door closing pretty loud somewhere near her. Confused she opened her eyes and saw a shadow passing her quickly. Still slightly dozing she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Scanning her surrounding she realized she had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. Strangly the tv was out and it was dark around her. Noticing the blanket on her body she wondered if Kyle had been covering her with it. Putting her feet on the nice, soft tan coloured carpet beneath her, she stretched her limbs from her body. She hated to sleep on the couch, because she always looked so wrinkled after it. Standing up and straightening her clothes, which seemed to be everywhere, she turned around and saw a small beam of light shining in the hall. Carefully she walked in the direction and noticed that someone was in the kitchen. The closer she got, the clearer the voices became and the more she could understand. Keeping in the dark she leant against the wall besides her and listened.

" _I want to know what´s going on. I have a right. I´m still your father"._

" _I know that Dad. But Maria is my sister and sorry to tell you that, she´s more important to me right now. I won´t break her trust in me. If you want to know something ask her, but this lips keep closed"._

" _We just want to help, honey. I´m worried about my children. You and your sister are like stranger to me right now. Me, your mother. If you can tell us something, no matter how small, we would appreciate it"._

" _Sorry. You´re not getting something out of me. You can threaten me with chores or grounding, but I won´t spill. Not now, maybe never"._

" _Dammit son! If something happens to my daughter and you could have prevented it, I will personally kill you, do you understand me!"._

" _Jim, calm down. We won´t get far with this tactic. Maybe we should wait until Maria wakes up and try to talk to her"._

At that Maria made a hasty retreat. Quietly she sneaked down the hall towards the front door to escape the intervention of her parents. It was bad enough that they were pump their own son for information, but then to do it behind her back that was low. Thankfully her brother was sticking to her, even with the prospect of getting punished. In that moment she was so glad to have such a loyal person at her side. For that she would stop teasing him for at least a week or maybe even two weeks. Slipping carefully out of the house without making too much noise, she was surprised to see that she wasn´t alone. Her loser cousin Sean was sitting on the bench and smoked a cigarette or rather what she hoped was one. He startled and tried to hid the nasty thing.

" Don´t worry. It´s just me".

Sean relaxed again and put the cancer stick back in his mouth. Inhaling deeply the ash on the end of the stem was glowing red in the darkness and illuminated his face a little. " What are you doing out here?".

Maria wrapped her arms around her middle, already cursing herself for forgetting her jacket and looked back inside the house. Her parents were obviously still grilling her brother. The light was still visible and the living room was dark. " Avoiding my parents. What about you?".

" The same", Sean slid a bit aside to make room for his younger cousin. Then he patted the spot besides him and waited until she was seated before he took off his dark blue jacket and threw it over her shoulders. " Feeling better?".

Maria was blown away for a second about the strange behaviour. Oh shit, she was still dreaming or she went loco. There was no other explanation. Everything was just too unreal. Pinching herself she winced when she felt pain shooting through her arm. Damn, there went her theory. " Yeah. I´m good", squinting her eyes at him she regarded him warily. " Are you on drugs?".

Sean laughed and it sounded so weird coming from him. He wasn´t the happy and smile kinda guy, he was more the I´m angry at the world so better stay out of my way kinda guy. " Why? Do I look high to you?".

" No. But your acting odd and it´s a little scaring me. You´re almost nice", and that wasn´t a word she would normally associate with him. Maybe bold, criminal, annoying and definitely strange. But never nice or something in this direction.

Sean took another drag of his cigarette and blew the smoke out in the night. His face changed from smiling to hurting. His jaw was moving under his skin and his eyes were glinting in the moonlight. " Yeah. Juvie will do that to you. Believe me, four years in there and you think differently about everything. Besides I got older and see a few things clearer now".

Maria nodded her head at him. She could relate to that. She had to mature in a short span of time, too. Even if she had to do it in freedom and not locked up in some cell. " I kow what you mean".

" Are you in trouble?".

The answer was so sudden and quick that it caught Maria off guard for a moment. She hadn´t realized that even her cousin noticed that anything was going on. Oh hell, maybe she should spare anyone the gossiping and write an article for the Roswell Gazette, where stood that she was an alien slash goddess, who was sent here to save the earth and her home planet. " Not yet. But it´s just a matter of time".

Sean was finally finished with smoking and flicked the stogie away with his fingers. For awhile he watched it fly through the air and out of their sight. After that he turned to the side to eye his cousin. " I know you won´t tell me what you´re hiding from us. But if you need help, I know a few people who love to break some kneecaps. Just say a word, you don´t even have to explain anything and I will call them immediately".

" Why are you doing that?", Maria was a little suspicious, although she had to most honest and longest conversation with her cousin ever. It was like some part of her understood a part of him. Well, maybe he was an alien, too?

Sean jumped to his feets and put himself in front of her. Ruffling her hair and getting a glare in return, he smiled. Not the sarcastic or evil one, no it was a earnest smile. " Because we´re family. And family sticks together", and with that he disappeared inside.

Shocked and a little bewildered she watched after him. Now that was something that she hadn´t expected to find at home. She actually had been having a really good conversation with Sean. And she liked it, even found her first answer. If she wanted to do something different this time, she had to be honest with her parents and tell them everything they wanted to know. Shaking her head she stood up from the bench and went inside, where her father was already waiting for her. His expression didn´t bode well for her. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyes just two small slits. " Hey Dad".

" Don´t hey Dad me. I´m not happy with you right now young lady", his voice didn´t raise like it usual did when he was angry with her. No, he used his you disappointed me voice. That was more cruel than his screaming, because it felt like she lost his trust in her.

Maria looked down on the floor and shuffled with her feet. She was trying to distract her father with her little girl number. Slowly she lifted her head and gave him her puppy dog face. That worked everytime. Yeah, until now. " What did I do this time?".

Jim had a hard time keeping his angry expression up. But he wouldn´t look away any longer, not after his children almost got killed in an accident, which didn´t seem to appear like it was coincidence either. He wanted to truth, no bullshiting him and no beating around the bush. " You know what. I want answers right now".

" Not now okay. I will tell you everything, I promise. But give me a little more time and I´m happy to be honest with you and Mom", to add a little dramatic she let her lower lip tremble slightly and her eyes sparkle with unshead tears. Okay, he might have resisted her Daddy´s little girl trick, but he wouldn´t do the same to her sad daughter number.

Jim relented, because he couldn´t see his angel cry. It always broke his heart to witness her green eyes filling with tears and the aweful sound of her sobs. Going to her he embraced her and kissed her head. He couldn´t stay mad at her anyway. " I´m so glad that nothing happened to you. I couldn´t stand losing you or your brother".

Maria enjoyed the warm hug from her father and the unmistakable scent from him. She always wondered what it was. She smelled Old spice, his aftershave, but there was another odor mixed into it. Something that was reminding her about the ocean. But she couldn´t quite put her finger on it. " You don´t have to worry about me or Kyle".

" Yeah I think I heard that sentence before", and still it didn´t convince him. Besides they were his children and he would always worry about them, if they wanted it or not. He was father and he would be that until he died. That would probably the time when he stopped fretting over them.

Maria released her father and wriggled her finger in front of his face with a mischieve twinkle in her eyes. " Maybe you should finally start believing it, then I don´t have to remind you over and over again".

Jim nudged his daughter softly in the direction of the staircase. " I´ll think about it. But now drop by your sisters room for a moment. She´s waiting to talk to you".

" I love you. Good night", kissing her fathers cheek quickly she turned around and sprinted up the stairs without waiting for a reply. She almost fell on her face on the last step, but thankfully she could catch herself in time. Looking down she noticed her father was gone and she was glad that he let her off the hook for now. But soon she would spill her secret. She just had to find the guts to do that. Taking a deep breath she went to Lindsey´s room and knocked on the door before entering. Curious why her baby sis wanted to talk to her.

TBC


	57. Chapter 57

**RedJewel2662 – The answer to your question is still up to debate. I even don´t know if she´s expecting or not. You just have to wait and see.**

**Chapter 55 A second chance**

Michael was still lying in his bed and wondered what he did wrong. Where did he make a mistake, so that Maria thought she had to escape him? Had he been too fast for her? So many questions plaguing his mind and no answers. He had been having enough time already, because he was resting in his big comfortable king size bed since yesterday when they arrived at home. Tess immediately sent him in his room to lay down and get better, although he told her a hundred times that he was fine. One perk of being different than others, as an alien hybrid the healing was faster than with any human. Well, actually there was another perk, but it was more in the sexual departement. Now a day had been gone and a new was starting and still no sign for him that would tell what he could do to make everything alright again. He had stared at the black painted walls and his staind vs. Metallica posters the whole time the day before. But nothing had helped him in any way. It just made him more depressed the more he thought about it. A few times he had been close to call her and ask her what she was thinking to just break up with him. Unfortunately his sister had prevented him from embarrissing himself. She had told him that he should have patience and everything would work out. In return he grilled her about information. He was sure that she knew something and was only too loyal to sell her roommate. All threatening didn´t help, the offered money and not even his begging. Tess was strangly quiet about this topic, a strange contrast to her chatty nature. But he couldn´t be mad at her, at least not anymore. She had been a great sister, sitting with him all day and trying to distract him from his pain, emotionally and physically. She told him about the small accident from Kyle in her room, when he kissed the floor unvoluntarily and begged her not to kill him. That earned her a small smile, but it soon disappeared again. There wasn´t anything that could cheer him up for a while and maybe he would never be happy as long as he lived. Suddenly he was thrown out of his dark thoughts when the door to his room opened with a loud bang. A middle aged hispanic woman with black hair and a bulky body waddled through his space towards the big window besides his bed. Forcefully she took the thick dark red curtain with both hands and pushed the two sides apart. Broad daylight was shining in the room and made it look a little brighter.

" Good morning, Michael. Come on. Rise and shine sweety".

Michael groaned angrily and put his with dark blue velvet covered pillow over his face. He didn´t want anybody in his room and bothering him. What did he have to do to get left alone in this freaking house? " Go away, Juanita. I want to be alone".

The housemaid lifted a eyebrow in his direction. Did he think this number would work with her? She survived his puberty, his first hangover and his angry state when his parents died. She would manage a break up, even if it was hard to see him suffering so bad. He had never been one to fall in love with girls, he just thought they were good for one thing and when they fullfilled their use he threw them away without caring for their feelings. Now it was actually justified when someone did the same to him. " Oh no, don´t give me that garbage again, chico! You will stop moping around immediately or I´m forced to use radical measures".

" And what do you wanna do?", Michael wasn´t that terrified of her. She could be stern and she had her own way of punishing him with her dark looks thrown his way everytime they crossed path. But all in all she was a good soul and she loved him to pieces. She couldn´t scare him. Not really.

Juanita smiled evily and if the boy hiding under his bedding would have looked he would have seen it coming already. But alas he did not. " I´m cleaning your whole room", she waited a beat to lull him in a false sense of security. " In the nude".

That got a reaction from Michael, who instantly threw the pillow aside and jumped out of his bed, not caring if his injury was healed already or not. Just the thought of her unclothed body was making him shaking of fear. It wasn´t as much her appearance that was bothering him, it was rather the fact that he saw her as part of his family and there were things he didn´t need to see. " I´m up. I´m up. No need to bring out the big guns".

" Ha. See I told your sister I would get your ass out of bed", she eyed him closer and saw the dark rings under his eyes. He hadn´t obviously gotten enough sleep. That was not the boy who exclaimed that he would never be depressed over a girl. Poor thing. " How are you feeling?".

Michael wanted to reply like someone sucked all life out of his body, burned his heart right in his chest and then on top of that tried to cut it out with a spoon. But he refrained from doing that. He didn´t want pity and he didn´t want anybody knowing how much it pained him to be thrown away from a girl. Thankfully he was sure that she just meant his broken ribs. " I´m feeling much better".

Juanita saw something that surprised her, because she had been so sure she would never see something like that again in her life. His eyes were open like a book and she could read every emotion reflecting there. She saw a lot of pain, a small amount of anger and a tiny part of love. Usually he was so guarded about his feelings and kept them to himself most of the time. This time however he did not and finally she understood what Tess tried to tell her about him and this girl being meant to be, that their love was special. It had to be when Michael mourned the loss of her so deeply. Slowly she stepped closer to him and laid her hand on his belly. " I´m not talking about your injuries", carefully her hand wandered up to his chest. " I´m talking about your heart".

" It will get better", he was a sure of it. He just had to wait until the pain disappeared and his life seemed to continue again. Now all he had to do was to find a way to convince Maria that he wouldn´t give her up without putting up a fight. He was a soldier and he didn´t know the meaning of retreat.

Juanita pinched his cheek with a smile. " You´re a good boy and some day this girl will know that, too. And before you know it she will either call or stand in front of your door and beg you to take her back".

Michael was sure that this wouldn´t happen. Maria wasn´t the kind of girl who would beg for something and she thought she was protecting him with staying away. As long as Nicolai and Khivar were still a threat nothing would change her mind. " Yeah maybe".

" Don´t give up yet", Juanita loved this children like it would be her own and every pain they felt was like someone had hurt her. He and Tess had been trough so much in her life and still they were still standing. Nothing could get them down so easily, because they were special and they had people who cared about them. " Now go down in the kitchen and eat something. Your sister and your grandfather are already waiting for you".

Michael was surprised and it showed on his face. When did that happen? His grandfather wasn´t expected until Sunday and today was only Friday. " Grandpa is here?".

Juanita was already in the process to clear away the pants, shirts and sweater litter on the floor. The boy had so much to learn about the proper handling of his clothes. He was in the possession of a hamper. But no he just loved the throw everything just down. Someday he would find a woman who would teach him to be tidier. " Yeah, he came last night. He had been extremly angry that nobody called him to tell him about the accident. As soon as he saw the news he was on the way to the airport for a flight back. He cancelled all his meetings for the next week".

" Strange", Michael shrugged his shoulders. Everybody was acting a little odd the last few days or it just was looking like that for him. Maybe he was stuck in the twilight zone and didn´t know it? It could be possible, how else was the behaviour to explain? " Well, I´m off to face the dragon. Wish me luck".

Juanita shook her head after the retreating back of the boy. He was always complaining about the lack of love they got from their grandfather. But he never mentioned that he hadn´t been an exactly easy person to be around. Charles Dupree loved the children just like he would be their father. It had been hard for him when his daughter and his son in law died in that aweful car crash and he was responsible for two orphans which just lost their parents. He did what he could and it was more than most of the grandparents would have done. A few times his lawyers suggested that he should give the kids away and look for a better family, who could care for them. But he fought vehemently against it and fired his lawyers. He wouldn´t give up his flesh and blood, not now and not ever. And he stuck to his promise until today. One day Michael would see the same she saw all this years. A wonderful man taking care of his grandchildren.

**Kitchen**

Tess and Charles were already sitting at the expensive kitchen table made from light marble. The whole room was made from it. Except for the cooking utensiles and the equipment, which was chromed. The space was huge and two big windows were throwing in a lot of light and made everything look bigger. Fresh flowers were on the table and everything was at its place, like in every room in this house. Michael was surprised when he spotted them both in a nice conversation while they ate their breakfast. Tess had a plate of fruit in front of her and his grandfather was biting pieces off of his bagel. Both turned to him startled when they heard him going to the fridge and getting a carton of orange juice out of it.

" Well, Juanita finally get you out of your bed. I´m impressed", Tess hadn´t counted on it. Her brother was pretty stubborn in some things and she had been sure that he would have fought her in this matter. Besides he could be playing the wounded card, but like it appeared he didn´t do that.

Michael took a glass out of the cabinet above the stove and poured it full of his juice. Then he leant against the counter with his back and stared at the two people watching him like a hawk. " Yeah. She threatened to clean my room in the nude and quite frankly that´s a sight I don´t need to see".

Tess tried to hide her snigger behind her hand. Unfortunately she didn´t make it when she saw the angry glare thrown her way from her brother. Straightening her expression she made an attempt to look less amused, although she pictured his face when he saw their maid in her naked state. " I would pay money to witness this".

" Funny. I´ll remember this the next time Juanita does the same to you", Michael hated to be the joke of his sister. Especially when he wasn´t in the mood for it. Besides she should be more careful, he was injured and pretty sensitive right now.

Charles watched the sibling banter between his grandchildren and he was relieved that they both had made it out alive from the building. It was a wonder that they weren´t hurt more, which he of course was thankful for. " I´m glad the incident hasn´t destroyed your biting charme".

Michael faced his grandfather with a mix between anger and disdain. How dare him making a sarcastic comment about him! " What would you know about that? You don´t even know me".

" Don´t start this topic again. How long do you want to be angry with me about that?", Charles was so sick to be the attention of his grandsons anger. It was neither his fault that his parents died nor that he wanted to offer the two the best possible life, the reason why he worked so hard.

Michael was tempted to say as long as he lived. But he swallowed his reply when he saw the pleading look from his sister. Instead he bit back his temper and decided to go to a place where he could let his dark feelings out. His painting room. " Forget it. I´m buzzing off", seconds later he was gone.

Charles sighed while he looked after his grandson. He didn´t know what he did wrong with him and how he could fix it. Maybe he shouldn´t have tried to buy his love and instead tried to be more there for him. But now it was too late and the damage already unrepairable. " He´s such a hothead!".

" Cut him some slack. His girlfriend broke up with him and he´s really hurting right now", Tess hated to sit on the fence everytime this two clashed together. She could understand both sides and said that often. Unfortunately nobody listened to her.

Charles let his glance wander to the door where Michael went out moments ago. No wonder he had been more irritated than usual. Maybe they should finally talk from man to man and get a few things out of the way. At least for his granddaughters sake.

**Painting room**

Michael had traded his sleeping wear, containing grey boxershort and a grey t-shirt, for something more comfortable. Now his body was covered in a blue overall, which spotted color dabs at some places, with nothing underneath. His feets were naked and made noises when he stepped back on the expensive parquet flooring to eye his picture from another angle. On the table behind him was a small CD player, from which Metallica blared loudly through the room. The blinds were almost down and just let some light pass, enough to see the surroundings but not to get dazzled. Angrily he slapped his brush against the canvass in sync with the beat of the music while he let his frustration out. He wasn´t normally someone, who was big with expressing himself. But with the painting it was different. There he could show his emotions openly without making himself too vulnerable in the process.

" You know you could be a little more nicer to gramps".

Michael startled when he heard the voice of his sister. He was always so absorbed with painting that he didn´t notice anything around him. But this time he registered the angry tone in her voice. Slowly he dropped his brush on the old workbench where now his brushes, colors and his other utensils were. After that he took a rag, which was as colorful as a rainbow and wiped his hands on it before turning around. Annoyed he glanced at his sibling standing in the door frame and the glare she threw towards him. " Tell me a good reason why".

Tess rolled her eyes at her brother while stepping into the room. Impressed she scanned the space around her. The last time she had been in here it was the free time room of her father, where he worked with wood on weekends. A few things were still here, like the cradle he began to build but never finished, two with strange symbols decorated candle bearer and the baseball bat he made before he died. Michael hadn´t been having the guts to throw him away, because it was a reminder. Although he never used the bat, it was his most treasured possession after his autograph from James Hetfield and his car. Now the room looked more like a studio from a poor artist and strangly she liked the vibe of it. " Because he is our family and he loves us"

" Oh please. You believe the shit he tells you?", Michael threw the rag away and went to the table to stop the music. Now that his flow had been broken, he could listen to the things his sister had to tell him. At least as long as she didn´t try to make him apologize to their grandfather.

Tess groaned while she lifted her hands like she wanted to strangle him. Bloody hell, he could be so infuriating sometimes. He was like a child trapped in a grown up body. Someday he would go to far and not get the chance to fix it again. And then he regretted his behaviour, but it would be to late. " Don´t let your anger at Maria out on grandpa. He doesn´t deserve it".

Michael whirled around furiously and immediately pain was shooting through his side. The broken ribs were not fully healed yet and a wrong move did still hurt. Thankfully not as bad as the day before, but still noticable. " This has nothing to do with Maria!".

" Really? You´re not mad at her for breaking up with you? Or sad? You don´t feel anything?", Tess knew that her brother was suffering from the loss of Maria, but he tried to bury it in his inside until he had the gut to deal with it. Unfortunately then it was usual too late. However she wouldn´t watch him throw away his chance of true love this time. She would force him to face his feelings dead on. " Then it´s probably better that she broke up with you, because she feels more for you than you for her".

Michael was on the brink to explode and he was dangerously close to lose control over his powers. The cups with his old paintbrushes were shaking and the ground under their feets grumbled a little. He knew that it would make him feel better to release the energy humming quietly under his skin. " Don´t talk about things you have no idea about. You can´t imagine how I´m feeling right now. But analyzing everything won´t solve my problem".

Tess stepped towards him, afraid something could explode and hit her. She made such a mistake before and now she had a nice scar at her hairline from a piece of a puck her brother had destroyed with his powers. " Keeping everything bottled up won´t solve anything too".

" Yeah heard that sentence before somewhere, but it didn´t work then and it won´t work now", Marianna had been having the same fight with him about that just before everything went down. The only difference was that he had mourned the death of his family then and now it was the death of the relationship with the only woman he could ever love.

Tess saw the swirling emotions in her brothers gaze and it hurt her to see him like that. Was it so bad that she wanted to help? Carefully she laid her right hand on his cheek. " I´m just worried about you. I want to be there for you. But I can´t do that when you won´t let me in".

Michael pulled her closer towards him and wrapped his arms around her. Putting his chin on her head, he swallowed a sob. He was aware of the fact that his sister just wanted to help him. But it was something he wanted to deal with alone. " Don´t worry about me. I will get through this stage and before you know it I will be the same pain in the ass brother again"

" Promise me that", Tess retracted a little away from him and glanced in his eyes. She just wanted to have an assurance, because she had the thought that their group was slowly falling apart at the moment. " Give me your word that you won´t break from the pain".

Michael chuckled at the choice of words from her. Grinning slightly he bent down and kissed his sisters forehead. As much as it hurt him to admit it, she had managed to get him a little out of his funk. " Now you make me sound like sissy Max. But I promise I won´t break".

Tess laughed about the obvious dig at their friend. Too bad that he wasn´t here to hear it, she would love to see his indignant face. Remembering to tell him about the insult the next time she would met him again, she pushed her brother softly away from her. " Good to know, because the next conversation would have been coming from Kyle, who by the way sends his greetings and his support".

" You talked to him?", Michael tried to keep the exitement out of his voice. He didn´t want to sound too eager to know if she had news from Maria.

Tess turned around and made an attempt to appear like she would eye the many paintings lining at the side wall. Finding one she thought was a little nicer than the rest she kneeled in front of it and regarded it with more interest. " Yeah. Told me to give you a slap on the shoulder from him. And he said you shouldn´t be down in the mouth. Maria would come to her sense someday".

Michael observed the body language of his sister and wondered what she was trying to hide from him. There was more than she told him and he worried. Was something wrong with Maria? Was she hurt? Did Nicolai appear again? " Why do I have the feeling your leaving something out?".

" Because your paranoid maybe?", Tess still stared at the picture. It wasn´t visible what it should display, but the emotions were clear. The colors were mostly dark and sometimes a little red was mixed in the shambles. There was so much anger, fear and death. Must have been just after their parents died, because the feelings were rough and hard.

Michael leant his back against the workbench and crossed his arms over his chest. He wouldn´t play this I don´t know what you´re talking about game with her. " Or maybe you´re trying to protect me from more pain?".

Tess pried her eyes away from the painting and turned to him. He was wearing his don´t bullshit face and she knew that he wouldn´t believe her clueless act. Damn him and his damn sixths sense. " It´s just Maria. Kyle is pretty worried about her. He said she didn´t look so healthy the last two days".

" What is wrong with her? We don´t get sick", that was a fact. He and his sister were never ill and never had to go to any doctors. Well, only when they hurt themself or something. But never because they had a cold or the flu or such things.

Tess shrugged with her shoulders. Kyle thought it was stress mixed with the pain of breaking up with Michael. But he wasn´t sure and he didn´t want to worry his parents, the reason why he didn´t say anything to them. " He´s not sure. Just told me that she was quiet and her skin color was alarming".

Michael was tempted to call Maria and ask her straight what was going on with her. But he was sure that he was the last one she would tell if anything was wrong with her. He cursed his empath powers for not reaching as far as Roswell, then he would feel how she was. " Did you talk to her?".

" No. She was still sleeping when I talked to Kyle today and this afternoon she has a date with Lindsey. They are going in the mall and spent time together", Tess hoped that her friend would take her advice serious and rest enough. She didn´t want to be the one to tell her brother that something happened with the woman he loved.

Michael wondered if Maria was in this condition because she was suffered just like him. Or maybe the last few days had finally caught up with her. It was probably the blending of both things. She was after all only human, alien powers aside. She just needed a little break and she would soon be on her feet again. " Yeah well, she´s tough, she will survive it".

Tess was stunned about that sentence. He appeared like he didn´t care about Maria at all. But then she remembered who was standing in front of her. It was just his defence mechanism jumping in action. Great, now he was doing it with her already. " All right. Then that´s my cue to leave you alone. See you at dinner", whirling around she walked out of the room. With a flick of her wrist the door behind her snapped close with a loud bang.

**That evening**

Michael had escaped the odd vibes in the dining room as soon as he had scarfed his food down. It had been creepy how much attention his grandfather paid to him tonight. He expected it already from his cousin Laurie, but she just smiled at him and talked about her day at the office. She wanted to draw the conversation in another direction and away from him and he was thankful for that. Finally he knew why he liked her so much. She always had been a special person in his life, something close to another sister. Maybe because she was looking a little like Tess with her blonde hair and her friendly expression. She was always someone who smiled at you, even if she had a bad day herself. But she could also be really stern or even pretty angry, which she proved on more than one occasion with him. She often scolded or punished him when he went out of line, what was very much on a daily basis back then. However she was after Tess the only person from his family he really cared about and who understood him. Which was the reason why she left with his sister the moment he disappeared down the hall towards the play room. She knew that he needed this time for himself and that he wasn´t someone needing so much people around him. Relieved he slipped into the room and closed the door tightly behind him. Smiling he looked around and was glad to be back home. He missed this chamber more than anything. It was the dream for every boy no matter the age. Every corner was decorated with games, small and big or something different. There were a pokerautomat, a big tv with the new PS2, a pinball machine, a dartboard and a huge billiard table. Posters of Metallica, Staind and Nirvana were gracing the walls. Immediately he made his way to the small hi-fi system and put on the radio on KFMA, his favourite station. It always played classic rock and sometimes even something new. Then he took a cue from the holder on the wall and prepared everything to play. Most times when he came here, he would go for the playstation and punch a few monsters out of the way. But today he was in the mood for a little pool. There he could think about a few things and finally plan something to win Maria back. He had already sent her a few dozen of white roses and a big pink fluffy bunny with I love you written on his belly. And he would continue with attacking her with gifts and people dancing and singing in front of her window day and night until she begged him to stop with it. Then he would really start with his plan and annoy her more. Even if he had to sing himself somehing and embaress his family. Damn his was slowly turning into a sap. Next thing he knew he would begin to cry at commercials. Shaking his head he wondered why men changed as soon as they loved a woman. They made the strangest things to get the attention of them and after that it got stranger to keep them. Suddenly he stopped pushing the balls around and listened to the radio host introcuing a new song from a relative fresh band called Lifehouse. Michael didn´t know what possessed him, but he dropped his cue on the table, walked to the system and pushed the volume up a notch or two. Then he listened to the lyrics.

**_Find me here, speak to me  
I want to feel you, I need to hear you  
You are the light that's leading me to the place  
Where I find peace again_**

Yeah he could relate to that feeling. He had felt the same when he was with Maria. She was like the light that showed him the way. Before her there wasn´t a girl worth keeping around. She was the first woman he could picture himself married and living with their twins in some small house in some suburb.

**_You are the strength that keeps me walking  
You are the hope that keeps me trusting  
You are the light to my soul  
You are my purpose  
You're everything_**

Did the guy knew Maria or maybe himself? As corny as it sounded it was exactly the way he thought about her. She was everything for him and his purpose.

**_And how can I stand here with you  
And not be moved by you  
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this  
_**

Great he wasn´t the only man trapped in the web of love. The guy singing this seemed to really know what happened when you were so deeply in love with someone you couldn´t imagine a life without them in it anymore.

**_You calm the storms and you give me rest  
You hold me in your hands  
You won't let me fall  
You still my heart, and you take my breath away  
Would you take me in take me deeper now_**

Either it was a freaking coincidence or someone was trying to give him some kinda sign here. The lyrics of this song were matching his feelings to a T. Maria really had been having the talent to calm him, which was not much different than calming a storm. He missed her. There he admitted it, even if it was just to himself.

**_And how can I stand here with you  
And not be moved by you  
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this  
And how can I stand here with you  
And not be moved by you  
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this  
_**

Okay if he was already honest with himself, he should also confess that he really was angry with Maria for breaking his heart and just leaving him back bleeding on the floor. It really hurt and it still did. He never had felt so strongly about someone not his family. He already saw the perfect engagement ring for her and had it put aside for him. He just wanted to wait for another month or two to buy it. Now he could forget his plans of marrying or at least delay it.

**_Cause you're all I want,_**

**_You're all I need  
You're everything.. everything  
You're all I want  
You're all I need  
You're everything.. everything  
You're all I want  
You're all I need  
You're everything.. everything  
You're all I want  
You're all I need  
Everything.. everything_**

Angrily he took the cue again and started punching him at the wall repeatedly. Tears were slowly making a way down his cheeks. He cursed himself for becoming such a pansy who cried because of a stupid song. He heard and felt the wood splinter under his hands and he welcomed it. It would at least distract him from the pain for a while. How could Maria do that to him?

**_And how can I stand here with you  
And not be moved by you  
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this  
And how can I stand here with you  
And not be moved by you  
Would you tell me how could it be any better any better than this  
And how can I stand here with you   
And not be moved by you  
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this_**

**Spent he dropped to the ground and hid his face behind his hands. He felt a little better after giving in on his darker emotions. But his heart was still bleeding. And he wished his phone would finally ring, where Maria told him that she made a mistake. That she missed him so much that she was on her way to him. Or that she didn´t mean what she said to him and everything was alright. **

**" Did it help?".**

**Michael jerked slightly surprised when he heard that voice. Quickly wiping the wet streaks from his face he turned to the person standing in the door frame. Since when did his grandfather come to this room? And how long had he been here? " What are you doing here?".**

**Charles left his place and walked to the small chair in front of the huge TV. Sitting down he watched his grandson. Finally he let everything out. " I thought we should talk. You know from man to man".**

**" I think you can spare me that conversation. Carlos already talked to me about sex and birth control", Michael jumped to his feet and busied himself with cleaning the mess he had made when he destroyed the cue. He winced when he saw the dent he punched into the wall. He had to fix that with his powers. But after his grandfather was gone.**

**Charles shook his head smiling. The boy had still so much to learn about a few things and he was glad that they were still things he could teach him. Even if he missed the sex talk. " A relationship isn´t just about sex. There are so many factors that have to meet before two people get involved".**

**Michael felt slightly uncomfortable discussing this with his grandfather. What did he even know about relationship these days. The times had changed and it wasn´t like twenty or even ten years ago, when the parents forced their children to marry the son or the daughter of a friend. Now it was much more complexer. " I´m fully aware of that, thank you. But that´s not my problem at the moment".**

**" I know, your sister told me everything about this special girl in your life and that she broke up with you. Do you wanna talk about it?", Charles had been having a similiar conversation with his daughter after her first loved dumped her. He had wished his wife had been present that day, but unfortunately she had died when Cindy had been 10 years old. And so it was up to him to comfort his angel in this hard time.**

**Michael cleared the splinters away and was close to clean the whole room, just to avoid talking to his grandfather. It was pure torture. Like he would tell him anything. " Nothing to talk about".**

**Charles stood up from his spot and walked to his grandson. Carefully he stopped his busy hands from being all over the place and looked in his face. The boy was hurting inside. " You love this girl very much, don´t you? And now she left and you feel like she ripped your still beating heart our of your chest and stomped on it".**

**" How do you know?", for the first time Michael didn´t reply something snippy or even sarcastic. For the first time he felt like his grandfather understood him. Figures, they started to bond over women and the loss of them.**

**Charles laughed about the surprised expression of his grandson. Was he looking so old already that he couldn´t remember his first heartbreak? It had been a long time when he felt love , but not long enough to not remember it. " You´re not the first man being dumped or left from a woman", his mind wandered to a time when he thought he would die from the pain of losing his wife. He had loved her more than half of his life and someday she was gone, just like that. " When your grandmother died I felt really bad. There was this aching hole where my heart was supposed to be and I started drinking to forget. Everybody was telling me how sorry they were about my loss, but I didn´t listen, because they couldn´t possibly understand my pain or how I felt. I didn´t just lose my wife, I lost my life and my best friend. More than once I held the old winchester from my father in my hands and thought about ending my own life".**

**Michael was shocked to hear that. His grandfather never spoke about the death of his grandmother. It was a off limit topic in this mansion. He never knew how bad it really was. But it was good to know that he wasn´t the only one suffering because of a woman. " How did you manage to survive it?".**

**" I had your mother to think about. One day I looked at her and I saw Karen staring back at me and I finally realized that I would always have a part of her with me. Besides she was so young I couldn´t take away her only parent", he could still see the face of Cindy as she glanced up at him with her sad eyes and asking him if she would loose him, too. It broke his heart to hear that sentence. She had been so small and she already knew that he had been in a bad situation. That was the kick in the butt he needed to wake up.**

**Michael hopped on the pool table and stared unbelieving at his grandfather. How come he didn´t know this man in front of him? It was like he slowly transfered in this different person. The strangest thing was, that he wanted to get to know him better. " Do you still miss grandma?".**

**Charles leant against the table besides him and sighed loud. " Everyday. Just as I miss your mother. Every morning I look out of the window and wonder if they´re at a better place, if they knew how much I loved them and if they´re happy".**

**" I wonder the same sometimes", Michael didn´t talk about the death of his parents much. Actually he never talked about it. Everybody assumed that if he wanted he would talk or share his feelings. But with time they stopped expecting him to tell them what was going on inside him. He never really got over their death. Still today he was depressed about it and at some days he was angry with them for leaving him. **

**Charles put a hand on the shoulder of his grandson and squeezed it. He would have prefered a warm hug, but he was afraid of the boys reaction. " She will come back to you, I´m sure. If she´s the one, then not everything is lost yet".**

**Michael was touched about the things his grandfather told him. He finally saw that the older man was really a human and not just a monster he lived with. He asked himself why they never had such a conversation before. It helped him a little, at least he didn´t feel so aweful anymore. " I hope so, because I can´t lose her. She means the world to me".**

**" Then why are you still sitting here and mope around. Get your ass in gear and sweep this girl off of her feet, Dupree style", Charles gave his grandson a nudge. If he believed Tess the girl was as heartbroken as Michael. " If you need the jet call Ed. Champagne is in the fridge and I think we have strawberries lying around somewhere. Ask Juanita".**

**Michael slid from the table and was just in the process to walk out the door when he turned around and embraced his grandfather wholeheartly. " Thank you", then he dashed quickly out of the room and almost fell on his face when he collided with his sister who was on her way to the kitchen to get a little snack. **

**Tess stuck her head into the play room and stared perplexed at her grandfather, who was smiling after his grandson. " What happened here?".**

**" Nothing. We just reached a common ground".**

**The same time in Roswell**

**Maria was on her way to her bedroom, because she was really tired. No wonder after she had spent most of her afternoon shopping with her baby sis and then they played basketball with Kyle and their parents. It had been great. Finally they did something as a family again. They had tried to talk Sean in joining them, but he said it was too exhausting and he would just watch. All in all it had been a really great day, even if she noticed that she gained a little weight. Her blue jeans were tighter than she remembered them and she just fit in them after she was lying on her bed and fought with the damn zipper. Okay, she used her powers to make the material slightly wider. Now she thought about not eating so much anymore. She thought about the food she ate the last two days and was shocked about the amount she had stuffed in her body. Her mother already asked her if she was pregnant, of course jokingly. But that got her thinking if she was indeed expecting a little E.T. Shaking her head she told herself that it wasn´t possible. Firstly they used protection and secondly it would be too soon. Opening the door to her room she startled when she saw someone sitting on her bed. Someone not part of her family. Instantly she drew up her hand and was prepared to shoot before asking questions.**

**" What are you doing here?".**

**Rath jumped to his feet surprised and turned around to her. He mimicked her stance while he tried to get out what he wanted to say. " We have to talk".**

**TBC**


	58. Chapter 58

**Chapter 56 Twisting of the events**

Maria kept her former lover in her sight and still held her hand protectively in front of her while she stepped back into the hall to look if someone was coming or where her siblings were staying. Straining her ears she heard her parents down in the living room watching a quiz show together and trying to guess the answers. Kyle and Sean were teaching Lindsey how to cheat at poker and noticing that she already knew everything. For a moment Maria let her glance waver from Rath and looked at both sides to be sure before getting back into her room and closing the door tightly behind her. She even used her powers to make the walls sound proof, just in case it would get a little rough.

" You wanna talk, then let´s talk. You get 5 minutes to convince me not to kill you".

Rath dropped his arm and his fighting stance, the expression on his face relaxed and a smile appeared on it. Slowly he walked to her desk and sat on it like he would live here. " You can stop threatening me. I´m not here to hurt you".

Maria shook her head at him and glared in his direction. " I´m rather safe than sorry, so I think I´ll stick to be cautious".

" If I would have wanted to harm you I would have done it already in the warehouse or today when I watched you shopping with your sister in the mall", he knew that he choose the hardest way in this game. He would rather kiss a man than to gave her proof about his honesty. Damn, he really forgot how stubborn the girl could be.

Maria´s complete aura changed immediately and her eyes got darker. She forced him on his knees with her power and made it that he couldn´t stand up from his position. Then she walked towards him and grasped his hair to pull his head up. " I thought we had a deal. I would think about your stupid offer and you would keep away from my family".

Rath was surprised about the amount of power she was emitting. She didn´t even try hard and yet he had problems fighting against the restrain keeping him prisoner. Woah, since the last time he saw her, she was stronger than before. No wonder Nicolai was after her. They both could be lethal to this planet. " That´s not the reason I´m here. I´m here to warn you about the deal. Don´t accept it and don´t trust your half brother. He´s playing his own game, behind his fathers back and he´s planning to take over the throne himself".

" Why should I believe you? Give me one freaking reason to trust you", she only trusted her family and her friends, who weren´t present at the moment. And only them. She wouldn´t make a mistake and trust the wrong people, just to notice afterwards that it was a set up. How stupid did they think she was?

Rath felt like she wanted to rip his scalp from his skull. A little more and she would be new owner of a new wig, complete with skin and blood. He wasn´t a wussy or hurt easily, but the grip she had on him was really starting to pain him. " I´m still the person you know, or Marianna knew at least. Somewhere deep inside you is the woman I love and I just want to save her".

Maria slightly loosened the hold on him, the sincerity in his voice threw her for a moment. Instantly her mind flashed to a place Marianna had felt the most comfortable. Rath´s bedroom with his arms around her body and possessively holding her close. The love in his glance was so honest and wonderful that it touched her deeply. Shaking her head she remembered that she wasn´t the same person and they weren´t on Antar. This was earth and she was the woman of another, a man she loved so much that she would give her own life to spare him. " That had been another life on another planet. I´m not Marianna anymore".

" I know that. But there is still a small part of her in you and it calls to me through our bond. Give me time and I will prove myself to you", Rath was desperate to get through to her. He didn´t want that anything would happen to her because she didn´t trust him. He hadn´t gone through the shit Nicolai put on him to lose her after all.

Maria pondered her options at the moment. She was torn between listening to her instinct who said she should believe him and her mind who told her that it would be wrong to trust him. In the end she released the grip on his hair and held back her powers. But she didn´t drop her guard completely. " All right, for now I won´t kill you. But as soon as I notice that you´re trying to trick me, I won´t hesitate to change you into a woman without using any powers, got it?"

Rath stood up from his place on the ground and faced her with a strange twinkle in his eyes. Slowly he grinned at her while his glance wandered over her clothed body. " Do you know how sexy you are when you show your darker side?".

" Don´t change the topic here", despite her feeling that she should be careful in his presence, she blushed at the comment. Nervously she rubbed her face and tried to get her heating cheeks under control, which was not so easy. The way he regarded her had been arousing and she felt really bad for that. Not even 48 hours ago she broke up with her boyfriend and now she was charmed from another man. " You´re obviously not here to talk to me about my sex appeal. What brought you into my room at this time of night?".

Rath stepped closer to her and the gleam in his eyes was anything but innocent. The hunger in there was intoxicating and at the same time flattering. The spell was just broken when he wriggled his eye brows seductively. " I was hoping for a little candy, but unfortunately I seem to have lost my irresistable charm".

Maria started laughing at that. " You haven´t lost your charm. You´re just with the wrong girl".

" Damn. Too bad", Rath walked around the room and eyed the interior with interest. It was like he always imagined her bedroom. A little girly, but not too much and a good portion of the dark side. He saw a picture of her with a badly groomed boy somewhere outside. Besides it was a photograph with her in a cheerleader uniform and her brother in his football dress, side by side and smiling at the camera. He was so glad to see that this life had been better for her. " You love your family, don´t you?".

Marias heart starting beater faster and she lost her color for a moment. She should have known not to trust him. Bastard had her distracted. Prepared to blast him out of her window, she focused on her powers. This time the blast would be deadly. " Why? You´re planning to kill them?".

Rath heard the edge in her voice and felt the energy crackling in the air. Immediately his head snapped in her direction and he witnessed her eyes turning a darker shade of green. For a moment she changed her appearance and he was shocked to see Marianna standing in front of him. But it was over before he could react and then it was just only Maria again. " No, I´m not. But Nicolai won´t hesistate to do that. Hence the reason for me to come visit you. Get your family as far away from here as you can".

" Is he planning something? Do you know anything?", Maria was already mulling over how she should convince her parents to leave the house for a few days, even weeks. Her father would demand to know why they had to go and after the conversation last night, he wouldn´t let himself fob off with lies.

Rath shook his head disappointed. He wasn´t in on every plan from Khivar, because they weren´t so sure to trust him with everything. A good plan for them, but not so much for him. But he would keep his eyes and ears open from now on. " Nicolai knows that you won´t accept his offer and I´m not so sure if he´s sticking to his plan anymore. He´s not exactly the most faithful person".

Maria snorted scornful in agreement. He really wasn´t someone you would count on. The things he said were usually not the things he meant. He was as reliable as Kaa in the jungle book and so dangerous like Shirkan. Not a good mix. " You´re telling me. How long do I have?".

" I don´t know. Probably less than you think, so I suggest you send them away. This evening or tomorrow at the latest", the sooner the better. If he could he would tell her she should go with her family. But she was part of this war going on and she wouldn´t abandon her friends or the people depending on her.

Maria felt her stomach doing flip flops. Tiredly she let herself slump on her bed and hid her face in her hands. Breathing deeply in she tried to quell her sick feeling and prevent to make her carpet dirty with the repeat of her food, backwards. " I´m not ready. Everything is going too fast. I don´t know which direction to go most days".

Rath immediately sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Softly he pulled her tightly at his body and stroked her head tenderly. " You´re stronger than you think. And you´re not alone. You have your friends and I´m sure they´re instantly ready to come here when you call them".

" You sound like Larek", finally Maria noticed why the two boys had been friend in their past life, apart from the same taste in women. A small smile appeared on her face. Strange, Rath felt still exactly like she remembered it. Just his scent was a tiny bit different.

Rath laughed when he thought back to his old friend. Too bad that they had no contact at the moment, they had probably so much to tell each other. Maybe when everything was over he could visit him in his UFO-Center and they could talk. " It could be worse. I could sound like Zan when he dreamily told us everything about his relationship with Ava".

Maria´s mind flashed back at the time in the castle. How much fun they had to tease the future king or like they called him Prince boring. Rath, Larek and Marianna. Sometimes Vilandra was with them and made strange noises at her brother. " Oh god no.I wouldn´t wish that on my worst enemy", she thought about her half brother. " Oh wait maybe I do".

" Do you feel better now?", he kissed her head, which was lying on his shoulder and a caught a whiff of her scent. It was a mix between strawberry and cinnamon. For a second he closed his eyes to saviour the moment and memorize it under things he missed and would never get back again.

Maria raised her face and smiled at him. It was pretty odd that she was sitting here on her bed with her lover from her past life, who she had passed as the enemy minutes ago and felt so calm. She believed just Michael was giving her this feeling, but now she wondered if it wasn´t about them at all. " Yes. My little freak out is over".

Rath looked in her beautiful green eyes and it was like time stood still. He could see his reflection of him in there and he remembered why this was the second best part on Marianna, of course after her great ass. Her eyes were always so open and showed how she really felt. Unfortunately the love they had shared was now directed at a man not him. Gloomily he jumped to his feet before he made a mistake. " I have to go now. I don´t want someone to get suspicious about my whereabouts. Be careful".

" Will do. Just promise me the same, well except you should play against me. Then I wish you alien herpes", she stood up from the bed and followed him to her window, from where he had been obviously coming , because it was open and she knew that she closed it this afternoon. Sadly she witnessed him swinging his leg over her windowsill. " Rath wait", she saw him glancing at her funny. No wonder, she startled herself with the cry. But there was something she had to do. Slowly she stepped closer to him and cupped his face in her hands. " Thank you", then she kissed him briefly on his irresistable lips.

Absolutely stunned Rath needed a few seconds to realize what just happened and had to cling to the window to not fall down. Woah, he almost lost his boxers and she didn´t even kiss him that long. The other dude should be glad that she didn´t have any romantic interest in him or else he would have competition right now. Scratching his eyebrow he grinned at her before he climbed down the exterior wall and disappeared in the darkness.

Maria shook her head while she watched him vanish into the night and closed the window. She put her hand over the lock and melted it, so that nobody could come in anymore. Maybe she should check every lock in his house. But what would it be of use? If Nicolai would want in this house he would come in either way. If she made it alien proved or not. Suddenly her glance landed on her telephone on her desk. She should warn the others and tell them to bring their family out of harms way. Even if her half brother laid all his hate on her, he wouldn´t hesistate to punish her with the death of an innocent. With a strongly beating heart she took a seat on her comfy chair and dailed the number lying besides the phone. A number she already tried to call a few times since she was home, but never had the guts to do it. After a few rings a familiar male voice sounded at the other end.

" _Hey Michael, it´s me Maria. I know I´m the last person you want to talk to, but this is not a social call...Really? That´s kinda sweet...Stop. I´ve got news and you won´t like it...No, I´m not ill. I had a visit tonight from Rath...Yeah it was really him, believe me...It´s not the first time I saw him okay...I know I should have told you that, but with everything going on...What? How can you say that. He´s not the reason why I broke up with you...Oh your so damn annoying...Okay, could you hold your bickering back for a moment and listen to me...Thank you. Now get your family away from your home. Suggest a vacation or tell them the truth, I don´t care. Just take care of getting them out of harms way...Rath told me some bad things. I will tell you everything when your here...What do you mean? Of course you´re needed here, you and Tess...You know what, I don´t care. Do what you want. Bye"._

Maria almost destroyed her phone when she banged the receiver back on the base. Arrrgghh, the boy was so damn infuriating that she wondered why she hadn´t killed him already. Angrily she stormed to her door to get out of her room, but unfortunately she forgot that she welded the lock on it. Removing the mess she made her way downstairs and tried to keep her mood. Maybe then she would find finally the guts to tell her family the truth about herself. However as soon as she stood in the doorframe to the living room, her anger disappeared and fear was making an appearance again. Swallowing hard she waited until her parents noticed her presence. " Mom. Dad. We have to talk. Now".

**Dupree Mansion**

Michael was just in the process to pack a few things in his backpack. Before he had made a little trip in the kitchen and got the bottle of cristal out of the fridge and found a box of strawberries sitting on the counter together with a can of spray cream. Smiling slightly he reminded himself to thank Juanita later. After he took care of the sustenance need he made his way to the garden outside and picked a few from the exotic flowers Tess loved so much. Loaded with everything he needed he stormed back into the mansion and towards his room. He couldn´t just plan a trip without any clothes and so he pulled something out of his closet, not caring what it was and stuffed in his bag. Ten minutes later he was ready and already on the way out the door when he heard his phone ringing. Immediately he stopped and stared at it, mulling over if he should pick up or not. But something in his inside told him to take this call, it could be important. Dropping his bag on his bed he lifted the receiver at his ear.

" _Hello...Oh hey. I was just on my way to visit you. I wanted to surprise you...Yeah. I finally got around to do something about us...What is it? Are you sick?...Are you´re sure it was him? I mean it could be a shapeshifter?...When? Wait, it was when you disappeared the day of the explosion, wasn´t it?Why didn´t you say anything?...Finally I know the reason why you broke up with me. It wasn´t because you were afraid I could be in danger. It was because of Rath... Oh really? Is that the truth?...Me annoying? Who started this fight this time? It wasn´t me...Fine, I´m listening...Why? Are they in trouble?...Wait, when I´m in Roswell? You need me with you?...Well, I just want to be sure that I´m not intruding you and Rath"_

Confused Michael looked at the receiver in his hand after Maria just hung up the phone and all he heard was the busy tone in the line. What did he say wrong? He just told her what he thought and she went all bitchy on him. Damn women and their mood swings. He would never understand them and he was glad that he wasn´t the only one with that problem. Rolling his eyes he put the phone back on its place and was on his way to his sisters bedroom when he collided with her outside in the hall.

" Just the person I wanted to see".

Tess stared at him with a surprised expression. She just wanted to give him back his cellphone, because she used it. She lost hers somewhere in her room and hadn´t been having the nerve to look for it. But now she was a little startled about his highly nervous state. " Yeah, why? No matter what you got told I didn´t do it".

Michael wrinkled his forehead. What was she yapping about now? He quickly glanced back in his room, but he couldn´t notice that anything was gone or broken. Irritated he faced her again. " I´m sure. But it´s not the reason why I wanted to see you. You have to pack your things together. We´re going to Roswell".

" And can I know the reason or do I have to guess?", Tess hoped it was nothing wrong with Maria or Kyle. But her boyfriend would have told her if something would have happened when they phoned with each other an hour ago. Except it happened just now.

Michael knew that he couldn´t beat around the bush anymore. The time was up now and his sister should know the truth. But how can you tell someone that they should prepare themself for a war gently? Maybe there wasn´t a way to do that, maybe the best way was to be honest. " Maria just called", he lifted his arm to take the wind out of her sails. She was smiling like a lunatic. Like everything was alright again. " She thinks it´s time to expect a battle. Our time is running out".

Tess was shocked for a few seconds and she had to hold her hand in front of her mouth to keep her from making a scared sound. But then she regained her composure and remembered everything she learned from Nolak again. It wasn´t like they hadn´t known about this situation, they had been sent here for this and still it was hitting her like a ton of bricks. " Okay. Give me five minutes to pack and we can go", while she sifted through her wardrobe to know what she had to take with her, she remembered their grandfather, who had taken a vacation to be there for his grandchildren. " Oh shit. Gramps! What should we tell him?".

" Don´t worry about that. I will think of something while you get your things", he thought about what Maria said to him. Should he really tell his grandfather about him and his sister? Straight come out with the truth he had kept for 18 years now? He wished his parents were here, they would tell him that nothing was too bad to be told and he would always drive better with honesty. " We´ll meet at the Dodge later. Now go".

Tess turned around without a word and made her way towards her bedroom, hoping that it wouldn´t be the last time that she was in it. For someone who was prepared for a war, she felt really scared and nervous. When she opened the door to her area a wave of sorrow was washing over her. Sadly she eyed her room in which she had lived all her life and tried to mesmerize everything. From her pink covered princess bed over her dawsons creek and buffy posters on the walls and the big dressing table with her many beauty products. Smelling the unmistakable scent of her parfum mixed with the patchouli she had as potpourri in a bowl on her night stand besides the bed. Sighing loudly she walked to her electric wardrobe where she pulled her old gym bag out and started packing comfortable clothes in it.

Meanwhile Michael finally found his grandfather. He was sitting in the kitchen with a small glass of whisky in his right hand and reading a newspaper. " Grandpa. Do you have a minute for me?".

Charles looked up from reading an article about the new developement on the wall street. " I thought you were already on your way to win the heart back of your girl".

" Something came up", Michael felt a little jittery and his stomach was in knots. With sweaty hands he took the seat besides his grandfather and tried to find a place he could start. It wasn´t easy to tell your family that you weren´t so normal like they thought. " Did you notice at one point in our lives that Tess and I were different than any other child our age?".

Charles dropped the newspaper on the counter and stared surprised at his grandson. He found the question a tad bit strange, especially after the nice conversation they had half an hour ago. " Why you´re asking me that? Of course you weren´t like anybody else. You´re both Duprees".

Michael shook his head while his fingers played fidgety with a cloth napkin which had been lying in front of him. " I didn´t mean it in that way. I mean did you see me or Tess do things that were out of the ordinary?".

" What is going on?", Charles had seen his grandson letting his little toy tank explode just with using his hand when he was four or five years old. But until now he thought it was a trick of light or his imagination. Yet thinking back, his daughter had always reacted strange everytime he had been with his grandchildren. Sometimes even his son in law was acting weirder than usual. " What are you trying to tell me?".

Michael stopped shredding the expensive napkin and faced the older man with a determination that had been more Rath´s trait. Breathing deeply he remembered that this conversation would be deciding about life or death. " Tess and I, we´re hybrids. What I mean is, that we´ve got powers from outer space, but we´re actually human".

Charles didn´t know for a moment if he should be mad at him or laugh about the joke. Because the boy couldn´t be serious about the things tumbling out of his mouth. Suspiciously he looked around to find the camera for this hoax. Unfortunately he didn´t see any. " Are you on drugs? Or drunk?".

" I´m telling you the truth. For once I´m honest with you and you accuse me of being high", angrily Michael jumped to his feets and paced the length of the kitchen. He should have known that he would regret doing what his heart had told him. Everytime he thought he was doing the right thing, he got kicked in the ass.

Charles cringed a little back when he saw his glass in front of him starting shaking and almost spilling the expensive Whisky in it. Carefully he turned to his grandson stomping from one end to the other furiously and mumbling something to himself. " How did you think I would react? I mean it´s pretty unbelievable. You don´t hear something like that everyday".

Michael paused in his strides and glared at his grandfather. " I thought you would know me. That I could tell you anything without being afraid that you would send me away. That I meant enough to you that you would believe me".

" Okay, you´ve got my attention. Show me something. Prove that it´s true what you tell me", Charles wasn´t so sure what he should think about the statement. But he would listen to his grandson, as much as he could without freaking out. Aliens? Yeah right.

Michael pondered how he could convince his grandfather from his sincerity. Letting something explode was too dangerous in a closed room. Reading his feelings and telling him them was not proof for anything. Maybe he should change something, like he did with the silver rose he made for Maria. But he couldn´t do that everytime he wanted. Then he remembered something he hadn´t done at least not in this life. Rath was good in that, something he had learned from Ava. Slowly he walked towards his grandfather and stopped in front of the older man. " Do you trust me?".

Charles was tempted to ask who did he think he was, because he was starting to get angry himself. However he recalled that it wasn´t a someboby standing before him, but his grandson. Someone he loved like his own child. " Yes. I trust you".

" All right. Close your eyes and clear your mind", Michael put his hands on either side of his grandfathers head and concentrated on entering his thoughts. After a few minutes both men started breathing in sync and immediately a connection was formed. Now they could see in each others minds and find things they wouldn´t expect.

**Flash Michael – Charles crying in his room after the funeral of his daughter. Being heartbroken over her loss. Angry at Adam for killing himself and the only person from his family. **

**Flash Charles – Michael destroying the barbie doll of his sister with a flick of his wrist. Tess in return glared at him and his pants dropped on the ground. **

**Flash Michael – Charles watching his grandchildren playing outside with a tennis ball they were throwing at each other. Glad that they were finally getting over the death of their parents.**

**Flash Charles – Michael shooting his arm out and let a trash can explode in million pieces. Anger at his parents for leaving him alone. Destroying everything standing in his sight with a rage that was almost tangible.**

The other flashes that followed were a little faster and barely regnorizable. But the gist was clear. Charles sat back with wide open eyes and an expression of pure shock. He couldn´t believe what just happened to him. " Why hadn´t you said something sooner? Or trusted me enough to be honest?".

Michael took a seat on the chair again. His feet were feeling a little bit weak after the power he had to use and the things he saw in his grandfathers head. Oh shit, he judged him wrong all this years. " It wasn´t something you mentioned so casual during dinner".

" True. But why tell me now? What made you do it?", Charles had seen a few pictures disturbing him. It had been a war, at least something with many dead bodies and much much blood. He almost smelled the iron and felt the fear. It had been scary.

Michael hoped that he did the right thing with bringing his grandfather into this danger. But what choice did he have to begin with? Lying would be bad, especially if something should really happen to him or Tess. So the older man knew why and wouldn´t always wonder about their deaths. " I can´t tell you the whole story, because that would take too long. But the main things is, our enemy from this other planet followed us here and he was behind the attack of the library. Now I got a call from Maria and she told me to get my family out of harms way immediately. And that´s what I´m trying to tell you since I started this conversation".

Charles had seen in a few flashes that he was telling the truth with that. He was terrified that his family would be in the way and got hurt in the process. So in order to keep the good relationship with his grandson, he bit back his usual comment and decided to listen to the younger boy for once. " Okay. I think I will do a small vacation in our bungalow in Florida. I´ll take along Bobby, Meredith and Laurie".

" Thank you. That really means a lot to me", Michael was relieved about the ending of this conversation and happy that his grandfather didn´t think different about him now that he knew the truth.

Charles smiled at him, finally understanding his grandson better and getting to know the reason why he had been different than other children. Now he accepted that he and his sister had been really special. " I will arrange everything now. We´ll leave tomorrow at the latest".

Michael felt like a load had taken off of his mind. Now he could breathe easier, knowing his family wasn´t a target anymore. Although his uncle and his aunt could do with a nice bullet in their heads. He didn´t like them and their snobbish way. " Tess and I are going to Roswell. We´ll leave as soon as she has packed her bag".

As if by hearing her name called the small blonde stormed towards them with a backpack on her shoulders and a gym bag in her hand, Michaels gym bag. " I´m ready to go. I got your things, too".

" Okay. That means we have to say goodbye now", Michael turned to his grandfather and he regretted being so angry at him all this years. It was like he wasted so much time with hating him, that he never took the time to get to know him better. And it had been really stupig he knew that now. So without making too much fuss, he embraced the older man. " Be careful".

Charles squeezed his grandson wholeheartely. He would have never thought to see the day when they would finally get along. Miracles could really happen. Who would have thought. " You, too. Take care of your sister and come back alive".

Michael released his grandfather and grinned at him, in the same way his father had always done. He was looking more and more like Adam every day. " You got it", then he took the bags from his sister and walked away.

" I will miss you. We´ll see each other soon", Tess hoped she wasn´t lying in that matter. With tears in her eyes she threw her arms around her grandfather and pressed him tightly at herself. She was so scared of never seeing them again or never hear his many funny stories.

Charles stroked her hair tenderly and he had to fight back tears on his own. It was hard to see his children go without really knowing in how many danger they were or if he could help. But he would trust Michael with that. He just wondered if he wouldn´t regret it someday. " Be careful. Don´t do anything stupid and look after your brother. You know how much trouble he could get into".

Tess laughed about the true statement while she let go of her grandfather. " Don´t worry. I will do that", with a quick kiss on his cheek she followed after her brother.

**Same time at the Evans house**

Isabel was sitting on her bed, held in white and red covers and talked to Alex on the phone. While her eyes laid on the shelf opposite her, where all her cheerleading and other trophies were standing, she glanced every once in a while towards her big Johnny Depp, in his 21 Jump street style, poster glued to her decently red painted wall. Besides it were hanging her pom poms and the medalls she got with her team. The window over her bed was decorated with crystals and plants. At the right wall was a door leading to the bathroom she shared with her brother, who was standing just there at the moment with an angry expression on his face.

" How long do you plan to speak to Alex. Some people want to call someone, too", Max wished he would have blessed with a less chatty sister. She occupied the telephone almost all day long and he didn´t got the chance to talk to Liz.

Isabel glared at him while she put her hand on the mouthpiece. " Don´t get your boxer in a twist. You get the chance to pant in the receiver with Liz soon enough".

Max was two seconds away to strangle his sister or wait until she was asleep to chop off her hair and paint her face in all different colors he could find. Like usually he wished his parents would have gotten another boy instead of a girl, that would make his life a little better. But now he was cursed with Ms. Hogging the phone and the bathroom for hours. " I´m not panting. You know sometimes you can be a real bitch".

" Alex honey I´m calling you tomorrow again. I have a bone to pick with my soon to be dead brother. Sleep tight and I love you", Isabel put the phone calmly back on her nightstand just besides the many glossy magazines. Then she stood up from her bed and her eyes were coldly looking at her brother. Finally he knew why she got the nickname Ice Queen, she could freeze everything with her glance. " What is wrong with you? You know how much I hate to be called bitch. Just because you´re horny doesn´t give you the right to insult me".

Max felt bad for hurting his sister. The b-word just slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it and now he regretted it. Okay sometimes he could be a real klutz and a first a class jerk, although he wasn´t as bad as Michael in that departement. " I´m sorry Iz. I didn´t mean it", as an afterthought he add. " And I´m not horny".

Isabel raised a perfect shaped eyebrow and her eyes got that –are you kidding me- expression. Maybe it was a remnant from her life as princess, because how else was the behaviour to explain? " Oh please, the lust is practically dripping out from your ears already. All you think about is seeing Liz and getting it on with her".

" Now who´s starts to get insulting? I´m not as hormon driven as Kyle or Michael and although I´ll miss my girlfriend, I can bear to not get it on with her for a while", Max noticed the heat rising in his cheeks and in his ears. Damn, that was the most unpleasant conversation he ever had, except for the sex talk with his parents.

Isabel broke out in laughter at that. She loved to embarasse her brother until he looked like a tomato. Besides payback was a bitch, literally. " Relax, bro. My you really got it bad with Liz. I hope she knows how lucky she is. I mean after Kyle you have to be a gift from heaven to her".

That made Max stop in his tracks and lose his breathe for a moment. What was his sister talking about? No that couldn´t be, he had to misheard her, because it sounded like his girlfriend lied to him. No, Liz wouldn´t do that to him, she was honest and nice. " What? Kyle was with my girlfriend?".

" Didn´t she tell you that?", upps, bad bad Izzy. She should keep her mouth shut from now on. Although it wasn´t her fault that her roommate didn´t tell her brother everything, she should keep things for herself in the next time. All she got was trouble she didn´t need.

Max was just in the process to ask if his sister knew more about the relationship between Liz and the boy he thought was a friend, when the phone rang. Immediately he stormed towards it and lifted the receiver at his ear, hoping it was his girlfriend. She could explain him the whole situation better. " Evans".

" _Max? It´s me Kyle. Man I tried calling you a few times and it always had been busy"._

Max was a little disappointed because it wasn´t Liz like he thought. But it was a close second. " Just the bastard I wanted to hear. When did you have a relationship with my girlfriend?".

" _What? That had been three years ago. Didn´t Liz tell you about us?"._

" Obviously not or I wouldn´t ask. But that leaves another question. Why did she keep that hidden from me?", Max was sure that it wasn´t about remaining feelings for Kyle or else he would have felt it during their first time. But what other explanation was there?

" _I don´t know what´s going on in Liz´s mind. But I´m not calling for fun or to get yelled at from King Dingeling alright. We have a code red, very red"._

Max exchanged a confused and slightly alarmed glance with his sister, who stepped closer to him to listen in on what Kyle had to say. It didn´t sound too good at the moment. " Code red? What are you talking about? Are you drunk?".

" _Maria didn´t tell me everything, but I got the gist of it and it sounded pretty bad. She´s just telling my parents the whole truth about her. She gave me the order to call you and tell you to get your parents away. Send them to relatives or on vacation. But they have to be gone from your house, preferable today if it´s possible. It doesn´t matter how you do it, just that you do it and then come to Roswell"._

Isabel took the receiver from her speechless brother and held it against her ear. She was more calm in a crisis, especially when it came to battles. " What happened? Did Maria get a threat from Mini Me again?".

" _I don´t know, but she was pretty worried and I think close to lose her food right on the carpet in front of our parents"._

" Then we´re on our way back. Just give us until tomorrow. Tell Maria she shouldn´t do anything stupid until the scooby gang is with her", if anything Isabel trusted the other girls instincts. They both were gifted with a pretty good nose for trouble and if one was sure that danger was lurking in the horizont the other called the troops.

" _All right. I´ll give the message to her. Be careful and we´re waiting at the home base"._

Isabel shook her head while she hang up the phone. Kyle was enjoying this too much. He probably thought he was in Apocalypse now or some other romanticized war movie. But the reality was more cruel and rough. She had been present the last time everything fell apart. She didn´t want to do it again. " Get a few clothes, money and what you need. We´re making a trip to Roswell. Maria needs our help".

Max watched his sister from the side and he admired her cool thinking. He was a mess just imagining telling his parents the truth about themself, something they had never considered, all right maybe a few times. But they had dismissed the idea as not possible. And now it looked like it wasn´t so impossible like they thought. " What about Mom and Dad?".

" I am for being honest with them. But that´s a decision we both have to agree on", Isabel would be disappointed if they lied to their parents. It wasn´t like they hadn´t done that. But this time it felt different. Like they were going away, not knowing if they would come back or not without telling their parents the reason why. It had been something she never really coped with.

Max saw the hopeful expression on his sisters face. It wasn´t a secret that she wanted to tell their parents everything from the beginning. But he had been to scared to do that. He was afraid that they would have sent them away, because they were freaks. And yet, it didn´t matter anymore anyway. " Alright Iz, I´m with you on that".

Isabel´s smile would have made Las Vegas competition. With a loud cry she embraced her brother and gave him a kiss on his cheek before shooing him out. She had packing to do and so much clothes to pick from. That could take a while.

" Great. I should call Kyle back and tell him he should expect us in a few years, because Isabel can´t decide on her wardrobe", Max walked straight to his closet, pulled his backpack out and eyed the shirts on his hanger. Then he took the first clothes falling in his arms and stuffed them in his bag. After that came the essentails like underwear, socks and toiletries. He managed to pack his things in less than ten minutes. Maybe he should see after his sister and help her. He chuckled slightly about the act a girl put on because of her outfit. But his amused expression was soon replaced with surprise when he saw that she was almost ready to go. " Whoa! I stepped into the twilight zone".

Isabel turned around to her brother and rolled her eyes. Wasn´t she allowed to change her mind and do something unexpected? She could be fast if she wanted. " Don´t look so shocked. I just need my beauty case and we´re ready to put everything in the jeep", that said she pushed passed him and disappeared in the bathroom for a few seconds before taking her small suitcase and walking towards the door.

Max was impressed about how quick everything took place. But now they had to face their most feared challenge. With a nervous stomach he followed his sister out of the room and down the hall in the direction of the kitchen. He stopped besides Isabel, who was standing in front of their parents. They seemed to have talked about something while drinking a cup of coffee.

" Where are you going this late", their father asked a little confused. Did they told him about a trip they wanted to make and he forgot it? He glanced at his wife, who seemed to be as surprised as him. All right, that wasn´t it.

Isabel obviously choose to be the spokesman in this conversation. " Mom, Dad. We have to tell you something about us. Max and I are not exactly human".

**Valenti estate**

Maria was standing in the hall outside her bedroom and watched her parents and her sister disappearing behind their doors and preparing them to leave tonight. She had pleaded with Kyle he should go with everyone else, but he refused. He said he couldn´t bear the thought of letting her down and he trained for this situation, too. After a while she gave up because she knew it wouldn´t help anything if they discussed this matter to death. The only fight she won this evening was that she could convince her father that he was doing something useful. Namely keeping an eye on her mother and Lindsey. And he agreed to visit his brother in Chigaco, which was a relieve for her. Now she didn´t have to worry about them. After her family had reacted so surprisingly good about her confession, that was the only thing sitting heavily on her stomach. All right, Sean had made a funny comment about antennas and he made the klingon greetings with his fingers, but she warned him to not make her bad or she would kill him with her death ray eyes. Kyle had laughed about the joke, but he was the only one, because the rest was shockingly staring at her. So she told them it was just something to light the mood and she noticed her parents relaxing. Her father even threatened her to not do something like that again or he would spank her green butt, alien powers or not to which her mother agreed with a small chuckle. Lindsey found the news pretty cool, because she thought her sister was a superhero like Spiderwoman or Supergirl. Maria didn´t correct her, besides it was better than getting called a monster or freak. As long as her mother didn´t design her a spandex suit or something weird it wasn´t so bad.

" Hey! Are you with us or sending a message to your mothership?".

Maria was tempted to really try if she couldn´t get her eyes to shoot some laser blazes from them to fry her cousin. He was making her crazy with his stupid talking. Someday she would show him some her dangerous powers, then he would see what happened when you pissed off an alien. " Don´t you have to pack?".

Sean looked down at his hands, which were empty and to the ground where nothing was lying. He shook his head at her. " Nope. I´m staying with you".

" Yeah right and it´s motherday in africa. What makes you think I will let stay here?", oh no, the last thing she needed was her idiotic cousin finding his heart and trying to be a good samaritian. Or set his mind to play the hero. It was already bad enough that Kyle was with her, but two defenceless males in her life were too much.

Sean knew that it wouldn´t be so easy standing up against her wishes. She was more stubborn than any other human being he met in his life. Even more than her mother and all DeLucas together. But if he learned anything in juvie it was to stand up for the things he thought were right. And he thought this was doing the right thing. " And what do you wanna do if I stay? You just said you just wanted to keep your family alive, which leaves me out".

Maria pressed her teeth tightly together to keep herself from saying what she really thought and counted to 10 before opening her mouth again. " Strangly I think of you as part of my family and that means I want to keep you safe as well. And mesmorize that, because that was the only time I´m saying that".

" As touched as I´m about your confession, I´m not going, because I think of you as part of my family, too. I´m not budging from this spot. If you want me gone you have to use your alien mumbo jumbo on me", Sean crossed his arms over his chest and put on his subborn face. For a moment he thought he saw an amused twinkle in his cousins eyes. But soon it was replaced with an angry expression.

Maria was torn between ripping her cousin to pieces or kiss him for being so sweet. Maybe she should do the first, use her healings powers to patch him up and then give him the kiss. Why was it so hard to be mad at his big oaf. Bloody hell, she was slowly getting soft. " Okay. But if you get hurt or killed don´t blame me. I´m not responsible for any loss".

Sean grinned and was about to respond a smart ass remark when the door behind his cousin opened and Jim stepped out with Amy at his side. They both were looking not so happy. Just as they made their way to their daughter and their nephew, Kyle came out of the room besides them with Lindsey, who was sadly staring at the ground. Speechless they stood in a half circle in the middle of the hall and everybody was thinking about what would happen next.

" I think it´s time to go. I called Hanson and told him I have a family emergency. And your mother already informed Pete that we´re on our way", Jim wanted to do the farewell as painless as possible. It was hard enough to leave his children behind with so much danger lurking around. He had left his gun in his night stand just in case, although he knew they wouldn´t need it.

Amy bit her lip to stop her from crying in front of the kids. She had a really bad feeling for bailing without them. " I left a little money in the old cookie jar, in case you need it and the keys to the jetta are on the table in the corridor".

Kyle thought that they didn´t need their mothers car, because for one they had the camaro and second Sean had his beetle. So it wasn´t a problem. But she just wanted to help them in her own way and it was kinda comforting to know. " Thanks, let´s hope we don´t need it".

" Let´s go. I don´t want to take off so late", without waiting for an answer Jim moved quickly down the stairs towards the entrance door. He had to leave or he would change his mind about not staying. It was hard for him to see his children so grown up and fighting a war that wasn´t entirely their fault.

It almost broke Marias heart to see her parents and her sister going away without her. But she had to bear the pain if she wanted them to live. With Sean and Kyle at her side they trailed after the others. Lindsey had been really quiet throughout everything, she just looked down at the floor and said nothing. When they came to the door, she turned around to her older siblings with tears in her eyes.

" I don´t want to leave you. I´m afraid we come back and your dead".

Maria kneeled in front of her and wrapped her arms tightly around the younger girl, fighting back tears on her own. She didn´t want it, too. But she didn´t want to see her family getting killed either. If she knew another way out she would have took it. Unfortunately it was all she could think about. " We´re not going anywhere. Believe me, until you know we´re all together again. We´re calling each other everyday and as soon as the coast is clear here, you´re on the way home".

Kyle followed his twin and embraced his younger sister. " Besides Maria is a superhero and they don´t die so easily. They´re always winning their battles and beat the bad guys".

" I think it´s better if we bring the goodbye´s over us", Jim dropped his bag on the ground and huged his first his son. " Don´t let yourself get killed and look after your sister", then he patted the shoulders of Sean. " Don´t get in trouble" and lastly he pressed his daughter tightly at himself. " Don´t play the hero, don´t do anything stupig and if you get killed I will be very pissed at you. And keep the boys in sight".

Maria felt tears freely falling down her face and she noticed that her body shook with sobs. It was the hardest thing she had to do in either life. To send the people she loved the most away. " I will do that".

The next was Amy, who embraced everyone wholeheartly. She told her daughter that she put the lasagne from lunch in the fridge and it was stocked, so they didn´t had to be afraid of starving. To her son she said that he shouldn´t be so messy, because she wasn´t there to clean it and Sean got a lecture about staying away from lousy creatures and casinos, well bets in general. After that she took Lindseys hand and followed her husband to the jeep.

" Be careful. Drive slowly and don´t take strangers with you", Kyle screamed after his parents. When he noticed the sniffing besides him, he wrapped an arm around his sister and squeezed her shoulder in comfort.

Maria watched her mother keeping a firm grip on her sisters hand. Yeah, they were all scared. Suddenly something under the jeep attracted her attention. There was a green light blinking. Confused she strained her eyes to see clearer, but she was too far away. Shrugging the arm of her brother off, she walked slowly down the stairs and after a few meters she heard the beeping and knew immediately what this blinking thing was. In slow motion she saw her father activating the clicker for the car and she started to storm towards them. " Don´t do it! There is a bomb under the jeep!"

Seconds later a loud bang sounded around Roswell and ripped the car in pieces.

TBC


	59. Chapter 59

**Chapter 57 Mourning a loss**

Seconds later after the explosion the people in the street turned on their outside lighting and a few even stormed alarmed out of their houses. A man from across ran just clad in his boxer shorts and an open bathrobe towards the mess. Shocked he eyed the destruction, the many melted pieces of the former jeep, the burning scraps lying around and the glass splinter strewn on the lawn. He had to shield his face from objects flying from the fire in the car. In all this chaos he saw an arm sticking from under a ripped off door. Immediately he went to it and pushed the broken thing from the body. Surprised and scared he found the sheriff with shredded clothes, burned flesh on arms and face, bleeding wounds and closed eyes lying on the ground. Swallowing hard he bent down and pressed his finger on the artery on his throat to look after a pulse. Relieved he felt it, slow, irregular and faint. But it was there.

" Did somebody call an ambulance", he screamed at the people standing a few feets away, afraid to get hurt themself.

A young woman held up her cellphone. " Already on the way Harry. They will be here shortly".

He stood up to look for another wounded. He made a wide berth around the wreck and discovered Amy lying in the arms of someone. It was hard to make out with all the blood and the dirt. Slowly he approached the two and kneeled besides them. Stunned he bit back a sob when he saw Maria look up at him with sad eyes. She was badly hurt, an open wound was gaping from her head, her arms were burned, her clothes blood soaked and shredded at a few places. " Sweety. Did you look if she´s still alive?".

" I´m too scared to do that. I´m afraid she´s dead", the choked up emotions in her voice was heartbreaking. But at least she was still able to talk, even if she was in shock.

Harry took Amy out of her arms and did the same he had sone with Jim, namely feeling for a pulse. He gave her a small smile when he noticed a slight drumming. Amy was not dead, but she needed help soon. " It´s not too late. She´s still with us".

Maria was relieved to hear that, but she didn´t know what happened to the rest of her family. With shaking legs she tried to stand up. But unfortunately she didn´t have enough strength to carry her weight and she dropped down again. Suddenly she felt two pairs of arms pulling her on her feets. Firstly she saw in the unharmed face of her brother to her right and then she turned to the left to see her cousin slightly grinning at her. He seemed to be without a scatch, too. Happily she enjoyed the feel of their arms around her, sure that they were alive.

" Oh god. I´m so glad to see you", Kyle had already discovered his father. He and Sean carried him a little away from the wreck and laid him on the lawn. Harry was just in the process to do that same to his mother, while the boys distracted a obvious out of it Maria. She didn´t seem to realize what happened around her.

All of the sudden she wriggled out from the arms holding her and watch all directions, seemingly searching for something. " Where´s Lindsey? Did you see her?".

Sean put his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him. Worriedly he noted the tiredness in her eyes. He wished he could do something to help her. Faintly he could sirenes in the distance and he was never so relieved to hear that sound. " We took care of her".

" Where is she?", as much as Maria was standing besides herself at the moment, she noticed the strange tone in his voice and she feared the worse. Breaking away from his grip she pushed him aside, surprised about the strength still in her body. Just as she was about to walk from his arms, which were trying to catch her again, she saw the little body of her sister lying near the front stairs. Shakingly she went to her and glanced down at her marred face. The eyes were wide open, lifeless staring above and blood was dripping from their corners. Her nose as well as her mouth and her ears were bleeding. Maria felt suddenly so numb. Before she felt coldness seeping in her bones and fear. But now everything was gone and there was just this nothing. Without shedding a tear she slumped on the ground besides her sister and stayed in this position. She didn´t react when Kyle and Sean talked to her. The noise and the surroundings just disappeared. When the paramedics came and laid her on the stretcher she didn´t even flinch or blink.

**Hospital**

Kyle was sitting in the same ugly plastic chairs standing in the waiting room he had been when Maria got hurt from this small troll. His right leg shook up and down nervously, his hair stood up in every direction because of his hand brushing through it every few seconds and his eyes kept darting from one door to the next. Two hours, two fing hours he was waiting for news about his family and not once came a doctor to tell him something. For all he knew he could be a orphan already. He cursed his own cowardice. He had noticed his sister reacting pretty strange and he didn´t pay attention to it. He heard her screaming at her parents that a bomb was under the car and couldn´t move his legs, fearing for his own life. Because of that his little sister was dead, his parents as good as gone and his other sister not present mentally. Angrily he jumped to his feets and punched the nearest spot of wall he could find with all his might. People around him stared either shocked at him or in sympathy. When he saw down on his bloody hand something in him snapped and he slide down on the ground. Hiding his face behind his hands he started to cry violently. Why them? They didn´t had anything to do with this shit.

" Hey man. Here drink this".

Kyle looked up with his red rimmed eyes and saw his cousin holding a hot steaming cup of coffee in front of his face. With shaking hands he took it, but didn´t make an attempt to drink it. He just stared at the cup with tears still streaming down his face. " Thanks".

Sean winced when he saw the blood on his cousins hand. He glanced at the small dent in the wall and wondered how many bones were broken. Luckily Kyle wasn´t an alien or the hospital would be on Mars already. " You should let check your hand. It looks bad".

" It´s nothing. At least the pain distracts me a little", he was glad to feel anything. The last few hours were like a bad LSD trip. Everything happened so fast, that he realized what had been going on when they stepped through the entrance of the emergency room. Three stretcher had been shoved through the doors, one with Maria, one with his father and one with his mother. Lindsey had been brought immediately to the morgue.

Sean slumped besides his cousin. He knew that one himself. When everything seemed so bad in his life he had started fights with guys twice his size. He often came home with a bruised face, a few broken bones or a concussion. But it wasn´t about the fight at all, it was about pain. He liked to feel it and it had taken his time in juvie to give that up. " Don´t do that to yourself. It´s not of use for anyone when you start hurting yourself. It´s just painful and nothing had changed. The empty feeling will stay either way".

Kyle took a small sip from the coffee and hoped that it would warm him a little. He felt so cold and exhausted and like he finally hit the bottom. If he had known what would happen, he would have send his family far away the moment they had prove about the present of their enemies. " What do you know? I just lost my little sister, my parents could be dead at the moment and my other sister isn´t really there with us right now".

" Hey, no need to attack me. They´re my family, too", Sean was sure that his cousin didn´t mean it like that. They both had been through hell tonight and it wasn´t over yet. The nerves were bare and the emotions heightened.

Kyle rubbed his face tiredly with his left hand. He didn´t know what was going on with him. On the one hand he was so furious that he could take apart this hospital with his bare hands and on the other he was so worn out that he wasn´t even sure if he had the strength to stand up. " I´m sorry. But I´m just so a mess right now. I can´t think straight and it´s probably better if you don´t listen to me".

Sean laid a hand on his cousins shoulder to show him that he was there for him. He was just in the process to say something comforting, although in this situation there weren´t comforting words, when he noticed a familiar boy rolling towards them with a wheelchair. One leg was in cast held from both sides with a strange looking frame and was lying in some holder. " Hey Al".

" I heard what happened. A nurse told me about the explosion. Are there any news yet?", Alex had noticed the whispering outside and called for the nice nurse to find out what was going on. When she told him that Sheriff Valenti and his family had been brought in because of an exploded car, he had immediately left his bed, not even caring about his injured leg, planted his butt in the wheelchair and went searching for them. Thankfully Sean was pretty noticable with his rugged look.

Kyle shook his head. In the same moment he saw a doctor finally coming through the electric doors. He headed straigth towards them. He and Sean immediately jumped to their feets and braced themself for the verdict. Faintly he felt a touch on his back and a hand squeezing his.

The doctor stopped in front of them and his expression didn´t give anything away. He was blankly staring at the teens, who looked like a wind could blow them away. " Are you the son of Jim and Amy Valenti?".

" Yes", Kyle had to swallow hard to get his mouth a little damp. " How bad is it?".

The doctor sighed uncomfortable. He hated this part of the job, especially when the relatives were still so young and it involved both parents. " Your mother has a bad head trauma and is in a coma right now. Her brain was damaged because she crashed pretty hard on the ground with her head".

Kyle noticed his legs wobbling under him and the light seemed to get darker for a second. He was glad that his cousin was keeping a strong grip on him or he would have fallen to the floor by now. " Does she...will she...is it possible that she wakes up again?".

" I don´t know. We have to wait to see if the swelling will be going down. I can tell you more in a few days", the doctor wasn´t so sure if he was telling the truth. Most persons with so bad head injuries didn´t wake up again or became an invalid forever. The chances were fifty/fifty that she would heal.

Sean felt the air knocked out of him at that. Amy was like a mother to him and the closest adult in his life. He didn´t want to think about what he would do if she died. He turned to his cousin and noticed that he obviously shut off. So it was on him to get the other information. " What about Jim?".

The doctor eyed the chart in his hand and he made a weird face when he looked back up. " His burns were so severe that we had to place him in an artificial coma. Tomorrow a skin grafting expert comes and he can tell you the details about the process of any further treatment. He will survive, but he may never look the same".

" That doesn´t matter, as long as he lives", at least one good news. Even if it sounded bad right now, it could be worse. Sean was glad to know that Amy and Jim weren´t dead. " And what happened to Maria?".

The doctor glanced at his chart again, lifted a few sheets of papers to look there. But obviously finding nothing. Confused he stared at the boys in front of him. " I don´t know who you´re talking about. I just treated Jim and Amy Valenti. There´s nothing about someone named Maria. But if it helps I can ask around and ask the doctor in charge to talk to you".

Sean smiled gratefully at the man and stretched the hand out. " Thank you".

" They´re in good hands", the doctor squeezed the hand, turned to the white, pretty tired looking teenager at the side and laid a hand on his shoulder for a second before walking to his next patient.

Alex glanced up at his friend and was shocked to see him close to collapse here in the middle of the hospital. It wasn´t even a surprise after the news he got. His parents were floating between life and death, no information about his twin and on top of that just lost his little sister hours ago. " Sean. Bring him to a chair".

Sean whirled his head around and noticed the paleness of his cousin. Quickly he steered the other boy towards the sitting arrangements near the wall and put him in the brown chair. Worriedly he scanned the place for a nurse, maybe she could give him a cool cloth or something in this direction. " Alex, you stay here with him. I´m hunting down help".

" Okay. Maybe you should get him something to eat or a coke", it was the best thought popping in his mind. At least the best thought he could tell without getting labelled as a freak. It was bad enought that he got knocked out from a bookshelf, but his ego wouldn´t survive that.

Sean nodded, already thinking about that himself. Then he walked away with fast steps, desperately trying to find a deserted place to let all his grief out without losing some of his macho image. Besides Kyle was sad enough, he didn´t him his own cousin dragging him down more. When he saw the sign from the chapel he decided to get in there, even if he wasn´t a very religious man. Quietly he opened the door and peered inside. Except for an old woman sitting in the front row and praying, the room was pretty much empty. Nervously he went in and choose to sit at the rear end. His eyes wander around him and he observed his surroundings. Impressed he saw the many candles, the small altar, the cross with Jesus hanging there and the rack with books, probably holy bibles. The atmoshphere was calming and depressing at the same time, maybe because it was dark in here and just the candles gave enough light to see everything. Crossing himself like he learned from his mother he kneeled on the uncomfortable pew and clasped his hands. He looked at the cross in front of him and tried to find the right words.

" I know I´m like the last person to ask you for a favour. I´m not the most honest person or even religous. But I´m willing to change my mind if you would save my aunt and her husband. They both are the only persons in my life who care about me and treat my like their own child. I know I hadn´t been always a good son and I had been a problem child. But if you help me I can show you that I can change. But please, don´t let me loose my family".

After he said that a cold breeze grazed his neck and a few candles near him got blown out. Startled he looked around to search for the source of it. Alarmed he jumped to his feet when he saw the old lady, who had been praying at the front was gone. Pretty scared he almost fell during his escape from this room. When he closed the door behind him he tried to appear normal, after all nobody would believe what he saw or didn´t saw. Breathing out relieved he made his way to his cousin again. On the way he found a snack vending machine and one for cold drinks. Rummaging in his jeans jacket he found a few dollars and put them in to get a can of coke and a candy bar. With his gain he walked in the direction of the waiting room. Already from afar he noticed that his cousin wasn´t alone anymore. The whole group arrived while he was gone. He wondered if they had a radar and could feel when one of them was in trouble or if they communicated through mindreading. Hopefully not, he didn´t want some dudes snooping around in his head. " Great, all the power rangers together again. Did someone shoot the batsignal at the sky or why are you here?".

Michael glared angrily at him. How could the jerk joke around when they didn´t know anything about Marias condition. He was tempted to break the other boys skull with his bare hands. But he forced himself to stay calm, because his anger wasn´t directed at him actually. " Did you already get your ass kicked from a power ranger? If not I´m pretty willing to be the first".

" Michael! Control yourself", Liz put a restraining hand on his chest and tried to push him back. But she was aware that she was no match for him and if he wanted to beat the guy she wouldn´t be able to keep him from it.

Sean let his eyes wander over the strange group of teenagers. So young and yet destined for greater things. He stopped his glance at his cousin sitting together with his girlfriend. She was holding his hand and whispered something in his ear. Then he saw to Liz and Max keeping close to each other and giving comfort. After that he looked at the odd pairing of Alex in his wheelchair with the blonde babe at his side and rubbing his good leg. And lastly his sight slid to the guy his little cousin had the hots for. He was leaning against the wall and keeping his gaze on the floor. Sean felt so much out of place right now, like he had no place to be here. But that was bullshit, he was family and they just friends. Suddenly he noticed that everybody viewed a spot behind his back. Confused he turned around and realized that a man in white was making his way towards them.

The doctor, this time another one, a younger version, walked calmly in their direction and his expression wasn´t so empty like the one before. He seemed to be surprised about the amount of people waiting for him. " Are you the family of Maria Valenti?".

" Yes", Sean blurted out before he could keep himself from it. He didn´t want to much chaos, just get the information real quick. No beating around the bush like this well educated snobs were trained to do. " How is she?".

The young doctor noticed the tension within the group and decided to not bore them with medic latin. They wanted answers and not some empty phrases. " Physically she is alright. Except for small burns on her arms, some on her hands and a laceration on her forehead everything is fine. We´re just worried about her psychic wounds. She seems to be absent mentally. Like you look in a house and inside everything is empty".

Michael left his place at the wall and stepped closer to the doc. He was relieved to know that Maria wasn´t badly hurt. But he didn´t understand exactly what was wrong with her right now. It had nothing to do with her body, so far he could follow. " What do you mean with that?".

" I´ll show you. Come with me", the doctor went ahead in the direction of the end of the hall. Shortly before he came to electic doors for the intensive care unite he made a sharp turn and disappeared into a room there.

The others followed him hesistantly, afraid in what shape they would find their friend. They were so used to see her all over the place, keeping everyone on their toes and always bring the right words to the right time. She was usually so alive and cheerful that the thought alone she could be different was unbelievable for her friends. As soon as they walked into the room they saw Maria sitting on a chair and staring out of the window with her bandaged arms lying on her lap and the ugly hospital gown on her body.

Kyle was the first one who dared to step closer to her. Nervously he kneeled on the ground and took her face in his hands to turn it around to him. He wanted to see for himself if his sister was gone. Shocked he noted her emotionless eyes staring right through him. The doctor had been right, the house was really empty inside. " Ria. Can you hear me? Please don´t do that to me now. I lost Lindsey already and Mom and Dad could be next. I don´t want to lose you too".

But all he got from her was a blank look. She didn´t even flinch or blink. It was like talking to a dead person. There wasn´t one indication that she heard him or understood the words he said. Defeated he stood up and went to the window to observe the lights dancing in night. Tears were slowly making its way down his face, which he tried to wipe away hastily

" Is she...Can she hear us?", Sean didn´t have the guts to ask if it was possible that she would never wake up from her condition. It was eerie to see his cousin like that, especially when he thought about the way she had been as a child. Wild and untamable. But this was just a shadow of the girl he knew.

The doctor glanced at the hopeful faces of the young people standing around the room. It was hard to not be able to give them a better information. But he and his colleagues didn´t have every answer, they were sometimes as clueless as everyone else and all they could do was wait and observe. " We think so. She´s still alive, but all her unimportant functions are shut down. It´s like she´s trapped somewhere in her own mind".

Liz moved away from Max´ side and went to her best friend. Saddened she took the other girls hand and squeezed it. She heard a lot about coma patient who came back to the living just listening to their favourite songs. Maybe they could do something like that. " Will she ever recover?".

" I don´t know. Some people manage to come back from wherever they had been and some don´t. We just have to wait and see", the doctor stared perplex at the chart at the bed. Quickly he took it and eyed it properly. Oha, there was something he had overlooked the first time. " There´s good news. The babies are alive and well. They hadn´t been injured or disturbed at all".

Suddenly the room got really quiet, so much that you could have heard a pin drop. Just the noise from outside and the breathing was audible. Kyle even stopped crying and was now facing the doctor with a stunned expression. Tess, who was at his side to comfort him, almost lost the bubble gum in her mouth. Liz eyes were twice as big as usual while Max was holding the air in his lungs. Isabel and Alex held their hands in middair, obviously had been talking to each other. Sean swallowed uncontrolled and Michael blinked with his eyes repeatedly.

Kyle was the first of the gang who found his voice again and asked the questions everybody thought about. " Babies? Do you mean my sister is pregnant?".

" Yes. It´s standing right there", the doctor showed him the chart and pointed at the spot where someone wrote about the positive pregnancy test. There was even something about a ultrasound examination to be sure that the babies were alright.

Immediately after that Kyle whirled around and punched Michael so hard that he stumbled at the nearest wall from the force. Everybody jumped into action and while the one side tried to hold back the furious boy the others were shielding the hurt boy from another attack. The doctor looked at his watch and told the teens he had a important meeting. Without waiting for a reply he stormed out of the room.

Isabel used her powers to keep Michael from killing his friend. Now that he realized what had happened he was angrily trying to reach his friend and give him what he deserved. But she was putting all her strength in restraining her. " Stop it. Don´t take it personally. You would have done the same if Tess would be pregnant".

" Yeah. He didn´t mean it like that. He´s just a little out of it right now", Tess made her brother look at her. She hoped she could get through him and he would listen to reason. Both males were scared of losing Maria. But it was no use if they beat the shit out of each other.

At that Michael stopped fighting. He glanced at the blue clear eyes of his sister. She was right, he would have reacted exactly like that. Well maybe a litte bit more violently than that, but he would have done it. Breathing to calm himself he stared at his roommate, who was held from Liz and Max. They must have told him something too, because he wasn´t struggling anymore and he lost the crazy look in his eyes. " Okay. I´m willing to forget this incident".

Kyle mulled it over for a few seconds before he nodded his head and turned around to his sister sitting in the chair and looking out of the window again. It seemed like the little fight didn´t even interest her. Sadly he kneeled at her side and tried to find the reason for her to stare out for so long. But other than the dark sky and the many stars there wasn´t anything interesting to see. He faced the others, because he knew it would take a while and there wasn´t something to do and a few of them were probably tired. " You can go home. You can´t do anything anyway. I will call as soon as her condition changed".

" We´ll stay", Tess wouldn´t leave here. Firstly her boyfriend would be staying with his sister and Michael was probably gonna spent the night, not moving away from his spot. Besides she was afraid to go and Maria would be gone, that this was all a dream and her roommate was dead.

Kyle shook his head. He didn´t want anyone around him right now. He felt like he needed this time alone with his sister, no he knew that. Since they went to college they spent less and less time with each other, both busy with living their own lifes. In highschool they did everything together, going to parties, driving to the football games and even went to open air festivals. But that seemed like it was a lifetime ago. " No offense, but I want to be alone with her".

Michael was against this idea. He didn´t drive this long to spent his time lying awake in some bed and wondering if his girl needed his help or if he could even help her at all. " You can´t do that. We all want to be there for her. And for you by the way. Don´t shut us out".

" I´m not doing it. But I can´t remember the last time I talked to her, really talked to her. Not about aliens, powers, enemies or some war. Give me a little alone time with her and you all can come back tomorrow. Then you can be with her all you want", Kyle just felt that his sister was locking herself away in her own head and she would probably react to him without the others around. He had tried reaching her through their bond, but nothing happened and it scared him.

Tess noticed that her brother was about to object and quickly interfered before the two boys would exchanges blows again. She dug her nails in his upper arm and dragged him towards the door. " All right. We´ll be back by morning. If you need us call".

Sean glanced at Kyle to be sure that he could leave him without a doubt. Maybe he should stay with him and to keep him company. But all of the sudden he smelled the scent of burned flesh and smoke. Glancing down at his clothes he decided a trip home wouldn´t be so bad. At least he could change his dirty shirt and shower to get rid of all the blood at his hands. " I´ll take everyone home with me. Try to get a little sleep".

" Yeah, I´ll try", Kyle didn´t even turn away from his sister or even register that his friends were one by one leaving the room. All he could focus on was the face of Maria and searching for a sign of life in her, maybe just a little spark. But the eyes were blankly staring at one point. Furiously he jumped on his feets and paced the length of the room. Everything around him was slowly falling apart and he couldn´t do anything to stop it. Finally realizing how Marianna must have felt when she saw everyone she cared dying, he felt a new wave of rage towards his sister. If she knew what would lay ahead of them, why hadn´t she tried to prevent it or even told their parents the truth earlier and sent them away? He stepped near her again and looked in her empty eyes. " Why didn´t you do anything before this shit happened? You could have done something to protect Mom and Dad, even saved Lindsey´s life", at that his voice broke. He still couldn´t believe that his little sister wasn´t with them anymore. That she would never complain to him about the unfair behaviour towards her or the fights she had with their father about the increase of her allowance. " Why did you allow that I stayed behind like a coward while you tried to do something?", the truth dawned on him. He wasn´t angry with her, he was angry at himself for standing on the porch like an idiot and watch the car exploding with his family close by. Even Sean had made a try to follow Maria, but was knocked back from the force of the shock wave. " Please, If you can hear me, come back to me. I need you right now, more than I ever needed you before. You´re all I have left at the moment", he swallowed a sob and noticed that his speech didn´t make a difference with his sister. She was still just sitting there and glancing in the distance. In that moment his patience snapped and he banged his hands on the armrest of Maria´s chair. " Dammit, don´t just sit there and stare at me like a puppet", depressed he walked to the window and slide down the wall to take a seat on the ground. He bent his legs close to his body and laid his head on his knees to observe his sister. At some point she had to move and he wanted to be there for that. For hours he sat on the dirty floor and kept his eyes trained on her, he even forgot to blink a few times. But he didn´t stand up or look away. Until he heard how someone opened the door quietly. Surprised he recognized all his friends stepping into the room.

" We couldn´t sleep and we couldn´t wait until morning. So we thought we should be here with you", Tess smiled apologetically at her boyfriend. They all had tried to fall asleep, but nobody had gotten their eyes closed. Fear and worry had kept them awake. At one time they meet in the hall of the Valenti house and decided to go to the hospital to give their support to their friends.

Sean stepped around the girls in his way and stretched his arm out, which held a carton full of coffee cups. On their way to the hospital they stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got something to eat. " We even thought about taking breakfast with us".

Now Michael brought a box with Donuts and other sweet pastries forth, which he had hid behind his back. He opened the lid and smelled happily at the tasty treat. He had been trying to snatch one of the jelly filled donuts, but Tess and Isabel had slapped his hand away. " Donuts. Yum"

" You´re all crazy. How did you get past the nurses and security?", Kyle felt despite the things happening to him in the last few hours not so down anymore. He was touched that his friends were there for him, even if he behaved like an ass before. Slowly he stood up from the ground and groaned. It wasn´t good to sit in the same position for too long. Stretching his muscles he made his way to fetch himself something to eat. Now that he saw the food he noticed how hungry he was.

Tess smiled warmly at him, relieved that he wasn´t angry with them for not following his wish to be alone with his sister. But to their defence, they had resisted longer than they thought they would. Especially Michael, who almost went up the walls with worry. " Sometimes it´s good to be an alien with special gifts".

Kyle, busy with stuffing his face with a choco donut, raised his eyebrow questionally at the group in front of him. He wondered what they did, because he didn´t hear an explosion or screams, so Michael hadn´t been the one. Isabel, he knew, was capable of entering dreams, which left her out, too. Max was the healer and could create a protection shield. " What did you do?".

" My sister made us invisible", Michael reached happily for a jelly filled donut and bit hungrily in it. Finally he could eat something. The drive to Roswell he had been too nervous to get something down, after he got the message from Alex about the accident it was worry that let his hunger disappear and now he was glad to fill his stomach again.

Liz and Isabel looked over the shoulders of Kyle to check the shape of their friend. Disappointed they saw that nothing had changed since they had been here hours ago. Maria was still in the same position with the same expression. Max, realizing what the girls were watching, noticed it,too. " It seems like nothing had changed".

Kyle turned around to look at his sister. No, he had spent hours waiting for a small move from her. But nothing happened. She just sat there like a puppet and stared outside. It was like she was a stuffed animal standing in the living room of some person. Everything that made her Maria seemed to have disappeared. " Sadly no. I watched her almost all night and nothing. Not even a twitching of some part".

" I want to try something. I thought about it the whole time I was staring at the ceiling of your home. The doctor told us that she appeares like she is trapped in her own mind and I thought I could try to reach her through dreamwalking", Isabel had mulled over the idea so long that the more she got into it, she thought it could work. If not, they at least made an attempt to help her. She hated to sit around and do nothing.

Alex believed in his girlfriend most of the time. But with his best friend since childhood, he didn´t want to take chances and they couldn´t just play with someones mind like that. All they could do was to wait like the doctor told them. " Honey, she´s not sleeping. What could you possible do?".

Isabel looked down at him. She was sure that he didn´t mean it like it sounded. Maria was his best friend, close to a sister and he didn´t want somebody experimenting with her. She could respect that, but she wouldn´t hurt her. Just trying to find a way in her subconscious to see what was going on with her. " She´s in a kind of trance, not awake and not asleep. But maybe I can reach her. What have we got to lose?".

" Do it. If there´s just a small chance of getting her back then I won´t stop you", Kyle was grateful for the offer and he would do everything if it would imply that his sister would be at his side again. Besides Isabel said it already, what did they have to lose? Absolutely nothing.

Isabel watched the encouraging faces of her friends and for a moment she panicked. What if she didn´t make it? What if she damaged something while searching for their friend? What if she disappointed everyone? But then she felt Alex hand squeezing her arm. Nervously she got a chair standing at the ugly white table at the wall and put it in front of Maria. Sitting down she tried to get her shaking hands under control before laying them on the other girls head. Concentrating hard she looked in the lifeless eyes of her friend and breathed in regular intervals. Seconds later they started breathing in sync and Isabel left reality.

**Marias mind**

Isabel stood in front of a nice house. It wasn´t that big or even expensive looking. But it had a homey charme and it was emitting warmth. The porch was old fashioned and had just a small bench on it. At the moment a young woman was sitting there with a baby on her arm. She seemed to sing something to it while it sucked on its fist. The woman looked suddenly up and eyed the front lawn, where two little children were playing with an young man. It was obviously the father of the kids. They were running around and trying to catch each other. The girl laughed loud when her father caught her and threw her over his shoulder. The boy puffed his chest out and screamed that he would save his sister before storming towards his father. Unfortunately he didn´t succeed and was now in the same position as the girl. Both children were happily complaining that they wanted down. The moment their feet touched the ground again, they started to whizz around. Isabel watched them with a small smile on her face, which froze the moment the girl looked up at her. Oh shit, that was Maria as a child. Startled she tried to hide her shock when she noticed that the girl was walking towards her.

" Hey. Who are you?".

Isabel thought about something. That had never happened before. She had been often in dreams of other people. But they never realized she was there with them. " I´m Isabel. And who are you?".

The girl stretched her little hand out and a small smile appeared on her face. A smile showing that her front tooths were gone, a strange contrast to her long light blonde hair, which were tied to two pigtails. " My name is Maria. What are you doing here? Do you know my mommy? You´ve got a nice name. You look like a princess".

" Woaw little one. Slow down for a minute. You´re a inquisitive little thing, aren´t you?", Isabel was stunned about the many questions thrown her way in a short span of time. Thank god that Maria had discarded that habit or she would have made everyone crazy with it.

The young Maria seemed to get shy at that. Her rosy cheeks started to get red and her posture shrunk. " Yeah my dad tells me that often, too. I´m sorry".

Isabel felt bad for saying something. She didn´t want to scare her. It must be the part of Marianna that was afraid of the reaction of her father when she didn´t behave properly that made her act that way. Because as much as she heard Maria had a really good relationship with her human father. " Don´t be sorry. I was the same at this age", she noticed that Kyle and his father were still playing. They didn´t seem to realize that someone was gone. " So, do you live here?".

" Yeah", she turned around and pointed at the people there. " That is my father, my mother with our new baby Lindsey and the icky boy is my twin brother Kyle", she wrinkled her nose at the last part.

Isabel couldn´t hold back her laughter. The small Maria was so adorable. She remembered that she had the same thought about her own brother when she was younger. Well she thought like that today, too once in a while. " I also have a twin brother. His name is Max".

Maria´s eyes changed for a second and it appeared like the older version was staring back at her. But the moment was gone and there was just the joyfull face again. The dimples in her cheek deepened. " What are you doing here?".

" I want to bring you back in the real world. Kyle and your parents are waiting for you there. They´re worried. All you´re friends are. And Michael is so lost without you", Isabel kneeled down to be more her level and to look into her eyes. For a small amount of time the real Maria had been present. Now she wanted to get her back in her old form.

The younger Maria shook her head and stepped back scared. She glanced at her parents, her baby sister and her brother. They were all smiling at her and winked in her direction. Tears appeared in her green eyes when she turned to the beautiful girl. " Why are you saying that?".

Isabel bit her lip forcefully. She shouldn´t have coming so strong onto the scared child. She wanted to take her back and not push her deeper into her created world. " I don´t want to scare you. But I´m telling you the truth. We´re all waiting for you at the other side".

" I don´t believe you", Maria whirled around and stormed towards her family. She was halfway there when she fell on her knees, because she tripped over a plant bucket standing there. The tears had made her lose the sight for a moment.

Isabel knew that she had just one option left and it was the most hurtful. She thought she could spare it. But now she had to do it, it was her last way out. " I´m so sorry", she lifted her arm and seconds later the scene from the exploding car appeared. A loud bang sounded through the street, everywhere splinter, chaos and ripped of parts of the jeep.

Maria turned around when she heard the explosion. Afraid she jumped to her feet and saw her parents lying on the ground, with closed eyes and pretty hurt. Saddened she ran to them to help when she stumbled over a body. Startled she looked at it and discovered her sister, obviously dead. Seconds later she observed her older self getting pulled of the ground from her brother and her cousin before walking in her direction. Angrily she faced Isabel. " Why did you show me that?".

" Because we need you with us", Isabel witnessed how the younger Maria turned into her present form. She felt really bad for taking this road, but if it meant she would be back with them, she didn´t care about being nice. And like it seemed she had succeeded.

Maria stood up from the muddy lawn and glared at her friend. She liked it here. In this world she was happy with her parents and her siblings. There wasn´t a war, enemies and her freak status. There was just her and her family. " Why couldn´t you leave me here? I was content and happy".

Isabel moved closer towards her friend. She didn´t want to be the bad guy or get told she was a bitch. She would have done it a different way if she would have knew one. Unfortunately she didn´t and so she had to choose the most painful. " It´s not real. This", she indicated around her. " is just the figment of your imagination".

" And who would it hurt if I would stay here? My sister is dead, my parents probably, too. I´ve got nothing holding me in the real world anymore", Maria hadn´t been trapped in her own mind, she choose to be there. She found a memory she loved and didn´t leave. She was scared to come back into reality to face the truth. The truth that she failed her family again.

Isabel grasped her friends shoulder roughly and shook her slightly. How could such a bright girl say something so incredible dumb? Did she forget about her friends? The love of her life? Her cousin and her brother? " Yes there is. We´re counting on you. Kyle, Sean, Liz, Tess, Michael, Alex and Max. They´re all waiting for you to come back".

Maria tried to wiggle out of the tight grip. For the first time she understood why Rath had been so strange when his family died, she felt the same right now. She hoped that as long as she didn´t see it, it wouldn´t be true. " I can´t face them. I don´t deserve to live with normal people. I wish I was dead".

" Don´t say that. Think about your children", Isabel was afraid that the other girl would do something stupid and kill herself or starve herself to death, which would happen as long as she would stay in this realm of fantasy. But she had to consider the feelings of others in this decision. And maybe she would think about what she said when she knew about her state.

Maria stopped with her self pity for a second and stared at her friend like she a second head would grow from her throat. What was she talking about? Children? " What?".

Isabel was desperate, but thankful that she had the full attention now. She let her hands wander from the shoulders to the belly and touched the spot where the babies were resting. Maybe she imagined it, but she thought she felt something there, like a pull. " Yeah. You´re pregnant".

" Oh shit!".

TBC


	60. Chapter 60

**Chapter 58 Nothing is as it seems**

Michael was a little concerned when he saw Isabel using her powers on Maria. It wasn´t like he didn´t trust her, but he was worried that the help would be not working. It would be devastating for her and everyone else expecting a success. He looked towards his sister, who was trying to hide the fact that she was praying for a miracle. She always did that when he was near, because he wasn´t so believing in a higher power like her. She got that from their grandfather, he had told them that everything was already in the cards and the chief was giving them what he thought they deserved. He was sure that that was all just a bunch of crap. But that was just his opinion. He turned away from Tess and eyed Liz and Max standing at the wall. She was quietly crying while he held her and stroked her back comforting. Both seemingly in their own cozy world, like usually. Zan had been like that with Ava, too. Michael had to avert his eyes, it was just reminding him about everything he lost. Instead he concentrated on Alex staring intently at the girls, intertwining his fingers nervously. This boy was the only one in the group he didn´t get. He appeared like he was on of the geeks who where playing those games with dragons and wizzards. But then he changed completely and became this cool person playing guitar and charming Isabel out of her panties. Strange, he never noticed how different they all were. Slowly he let his gaze wander to the boy who got his best friend in such a short time. Kyle was an all american highschool student. Footballplayer, nice family, nice car and mostly nice girlfriends. However that was just the surface, if you dug deeper you found a young man struggling to fit in this world, just like himself. He wondered what would happen to him when his sister didn´t come back. He hoped they never found the answer to that question, because it would be real painful. For him and for all of her friends. Then he watched Sean, the formerly annoyingly cousin. He was sipping his coffee while he observed Maria and Kyle. He seemed to be like an older brother for them and made sure that they were alright. He had similarity with Laurie, who was there for them in every step of their life. It was always good to have such a tight family, you never know when you needed them. Slightly insecure he glanced at the girls sitting near the window. Isabel had her face contorted from concentration while Maria was still emotionless. For the first time it hit him that she was carrying his children. He was going to be a father. The thought was scary and great at the same time. He wouldn´t admit it out loud to anyone, but he loved children. Okay, he knew he was still young and they should have been more careful, but it already happened. Why cry over spilled milk? And besides it wasn´t like it had been a one night stand. At least they both loved each other, even if they were apart right now. As soon as Maria was back in the real world they would talk about everything. Plans about their future, about the financials, the college and education of the children. Thinking about that, he asked himself how many it were, babies could mean two or three or even four. Hopefully it wasn´t that much. Curiously he walked to the bed and took the chart from it. Reading properly through it, he found out it were twins, the sex wasn´t visible yet. Checking the rest he noticed one fact that let his mind spin out of control. She was in her 14th week of her pregnancy, which meant almost four month. Unfortunately they meet each other three month ago and had been having sex over a month now. Shocked he let out a small cry of anger. The children were not his.

" What is it? What did you read?", Sean had been obviously watching him and saw the instant changing of his expression.

Michael just shook his head and tried to grasp the thought of the woman he thought would be his wife in the future carrying the offspring of someone not him. He didn´t like to imagine it or he would go crazy. " The kids are not from me".

That exclamation startled the rest of the gang. They turned away from the two girls and faced the guys standing at the hospital bed. Kyle and Tess got in gear immediately and walked to Michael. Confused they read the chart, which Sean had taken to check and reacted equally shocked about the revelation. Alex rolled his wheelchair in the direction of his friends and joined them while Max and Liz stood back.

" That can´t be true. You have to be the father or else it would mean they are", no Kyle didn´t want to think about that. It was too unbelievable. Well he wasn´t exactly okay with his sister being pregnant, but at least with Michael he knew that she was in good hands.

Michael nodded his head, he had already counted two and two together. He knew what it implicated and it pained him to picture them taking care of their children. " Yes. They´re Lykus".

Kyle reread everything and he rubbed his eyes to be absolutely sure. But nothing changed, the evidence that his best friend wasn´t the father of the babies in his sister belly was staring back at them. No matter how they looked at it, the outcome was always the same. Comfortly he put a hand on the shoulder of his old roommate. " I´m sorry man. That has to be aweful".

" Guys, guys. Come here. Something is happening", Max´ voice broke through the tension in the room. The urgency sounded excited and hopeful together and got everybody to forgot for a moment that they were in a hospital and one of them was in a stange state.

Instantly they all turned their attention towards the two girls sitting on the chairs. At first nothing seemed to have changed. But after they took a closer look, they noticed that Maria was crying. Surprised they observed the tears falling from her eyes and dripping on her night gown. Then she blinked one time, two times and before they realized it, she was with them again. Isabel was there and embraced her while she finally grieved for her sister. The others watched relieved and sorrowful at the pair, not sure how they should react now.

" Let it out. I know how painful it is to lose your family", Isabel cried with her friend. The memory of Vilandra was playing in her mind. The moment she found her dead mother, the knowledge to be an orphan and to know that she was the reason for their death. She could relate, even if it had been another life.

Maria was sure that it would have been better to stay where she was. But that had been when she thought it was just her. Now she had to consider the lifes of her children, too. The way into reality had been more painful than she had imagined it. The guilt to be the source of so much misery was pulling her down and it felt like it wanted to choke her. Thankfully she had such a good friend in the form of Isabel, who wouldn´t give up on her, knowing that she was a killer. " I´m so sorry. I´m sorry for making you worry. I´m sorry for being not strong enough and I´m sorry for not being the person you all need".

At that Kyle pulled his sister away from the other girl and in his own arms. Crying of joy and sorrow he squeezed her tightly at his body. " Don´t say that. You´re perfect the way you are. If not for you, Mom and Dad would be dead right now. Besides if somebody should be sorry it should be me. If I wouldn´t have been such a coward I could have saved Lindsey".

" I´m glad that you stayed away. I don´t want to hear you apologize for being a coward. You reacted right. I´m the one who failed protecting my family. I made so many new mistakes, because I wanted to avoid my old mistakes. I´m a screw up", Maria had trusted Rath, her first error. The thought she could keep her family safe, error number two and error number three was to listen to the things Nicolai told her. I hold myself back to give you time to think my ass!

Kyle pushed her from him, still keeping a firm grip on her shoulders to look in her face. He was angry at her for trying to blame herself for everything going wrong. " You´re not a screw up. I don´t want to hear that again!"

Maria shook her head, still convinced that she was a failure. She should have sent her family away as soon as she noticed that Nicolai was in town or knew her position. But she was so sure that she could protect them, shield them from any harm. She should have known that her life would always run the same way. Without love and much guilt, ashamed thinking about the lifes lost to her. Damned to mourn her family forever. " But it´s true. I could have made a difference in this life and I didn´t do it. I lost my mother, saw her lifeless body lying on the ground and I didn´t kill Khivar for that. I ran away like a coward. Even when Mael and King Salem died, I was too scared to strike back. One good direct hit and we could have ended this war within hours. I knew the castle inside out, every hiding place, every location of the guards, every trap. And what was I doing? I worried over Vilandra, Rath and Zan, how they would cope with the death of their parents".

" Firstly that had been another person, secondly you had been a child and thirdly you´re one of the most caringly creature I met in my life. You always put the wants of others over yours, that´s how you are. You would pull an old man from the ground when everybody stepped over him. If you wouldn´t do that, then you would be like Khivar. We love you just the way you are", Isabel couldn´t listen any longer to the lies her friend were telling about herself. She did everything in her powers to help her friends or her family, sometimes even people she didn´t know. How could she not see how much everybody loved her for the way she was. Michael was more upset with the thought the children weren´t his than the thought he could be a father. Tess, Liz, Alex, Max and herself thought about her like a sister. And Kyle the big teddybear would give his life for her.

Liz finally joined the three, sick of hearing the pity party. Her best friend wasn´t like that, she was strong, brave and most of all always thinking with her heart. No matter what happened, it wasn´t her fault. Some things just happened and nobody could have foreseen it. That was one of gods mysteries in life. " Would you listen to yourself? Where is the girl who told me that crying doesn´t change anything? Or you shouldn´t wallow in the past and the mistakes done there, because you can´t change what already happened".

Sean noted the anger in the usual quiet girl and was stunned. He hadn´t expected that from her and then towards her best friend, who just lost her sister. " Are you mental? If I hear something like that again from you I´ll forget my good education to never lay a hand of violence on a female creature and slap you out!"

" Sean. Don´t attack her. She´s right", Maria wiped her tears from her face. There would be a time when she could mourn properly for everything. But the time wasn´t now. They should prepare themself for fighting back at the moment and not sit around to wallow in self pity. " We don´t have time to waste any longer. We should be at the base and plan an attack on our enemy".

Kyle was just about to reply that she should rest more, because of her pregnancy when they all heard the commotion outside. It sounded like a nurse was trying to forbid someone the entrance to a room. Amused they realized it was Lareks rising voice telling the poor woman to piss off and annoy another person. Seconds later the door opened and the devil himself appeared with Nolak in tow behind him. Both breathed out relieved when they laid their eyes on Maria and walked quickly in her direction.

Larek immediately pulled her on her feet and almost squeezed the life out of her. " Oh thank god! You scared me to death. Don´t do that again, I´m not so young anymore. My heart can´t take it like it used to".

" I can´t breathe", Maria managed to get out between fighting for air and being touched about his concern. Besides he was almost the only person who could make her smile in a dark time. He didn´t do anything special or tried to be funny, he was just like that. He said something pretty normal, but he made it sound so comical that everybody had to laugh.

Nolak noticed that his young companion didn´t loosen his grip on the girl and interfered before blood would be flowing. He grasped the other mans shoulders and pulled him back roughly, almost hurtful with his fingers digging into the flesh. " Gosh! Let her live".

Larek smiled apologistically at Maria. He didn´t mean to hurt her, he was just so damn happy that she was alive. The local radio station was talking about nothing else than the attempt on the life of Sheriff Valenti and his family, the people witnessing to whole thing retold everything their friends and Roswell wasn´t that big, so everybody in town heard of the news before the sun came up. " How are you? I mean are you hurting bad?".

" Not physically. I think most of my injuries have healed", her skin didn´t burn so painfully anymore. Her head stopped pounding like a rock concert and she didn´t saw anything in double like before when she thought the doctor had a exact twin. The only thing was the slight nausea feeling, but now she knew the reason for that.

Nolak did something that surprised everyone in the room, he laid an arm around the younger girl and kissed her temple tenderly. The relieved expression on his face showed what was going on inside him. Something he had never done. " We know what happened to your sister. We´re sorry about your loss".

Maria swallowed visibly and fresh tears were shooting in her eyes. But she repressed them forcefully, not wanting to appear like some weakling. She could have a breakdown and cry for days when she took revenge on Khivar, Nicolai and most of all Rath. Bastard tried to fool her into believing he was on their side. Next time she would show him what she learned from her father. She wasn´t just gifted with special powers, she was trained to handle a weapon like it was a lipstick. " Thank you. Did someone else get hurt?".

" Except your family? No, not that we know of", Larek turned to the others, who had been pretty quiet the whole time, especially Michael. He was leaning against the wall and seemed to seconds away to explode. Something was wrong with him, but unfortunately they didn´t had time for that. " What about your parents?".

Tess shook her head. They called their family as soon as they had been out of the hospital. Everybody was either still on the way to their destination or already there. They had been relieved when they heard the familiar voices and knew that nobody was hurt or died. Obviously just Maria and her family had been targeted. " Everything is fine in that regard".

Maria felt really bad for not asking them about that. She just thought about her loss and her pain. But she didn´t think about her friends. What kind of friend made that her? At least not a good one. " We have to do something so that it stays that way. We should immediately plan an attack that has the treacherous scumbag shaking of fear".

" You should be more careful from now on. Think about your condition", Alex finally realized that everything was really happening and his best friend was carrying two children under her heart. He was already thinking about their appearance, if they were boys or girls or both.

Maria shook off the arm from her shoulder and started looking for her clothes. They didn´t have time now, they should be out there and getting ready to fight and not getting worried over her state. She wasn´t hurt or groggy. " I´m pregnant, not deathly ill".

Larek and Nolak reacted simultanously with shock and widened eyes. Instantly their eyes wandered to Michael, who noticed the stares directed at him. He glared at them both, angry that they reminded him about the status of his nonexistent fatherhood. " Don´t look at me like that. I´m not the father".

" What do you mean? I know I hurt you by breaking up, but don´t you think it´s a little harsh to deny your participation in creating this children", Maria had stopped searching for something to wear, because there wasn´t anything except her blood soaked, shredded pink sweater and the equally dirty jeans and because the statement from her ex boyfriend had hurt her.

Michael left his place near the wall, took the chart his sister was still holding in her hand and walked towards what he thought was the mother of his offspring. Furiously he put it under her nose to show her why he knew that he wasn´t a participant. " I´m not denying anything. I have proof that I´m not repsonsible for your condition".

Maria read though the facts of her injuries, the results on her tests and the further treatment. There was even standing something about contacting a shrink, because of her mental state. And then she saw it. 14th week of her pregnancy. No that couldn´t be. White as a ghost she faced Michael. " But that would mean you´re really not. Oh my god, I think I have to puke".

" Where is he? I will rip his entrails out of his puny body", was suddenly heard from the outside. Seconds later the door was forcefully thrown open and a really pissed of Corly was storming in the room with a slightly ducking Lykus trailing after her. She stopped in front of her soon to be ex boyfriend and glowered at him. " Why do I have to learn about the accident from strange people I don´t even know and not from you?"

Larek winced shamefully. Now he remembered what he forgot to do in all the rush to the hospital. Smiling sheepishly he tried to save the small part of his dignity he had still left. " I´m sorry honey. It slipped my mind. I had been such a mess when I heard about it that I didn´t think right".

Corly glared at him for a moment longer before softening her features. It wasn´t like she was upset with him after all. She was more angry at the wankster behind this. " Alright. I let it slide this time", worriedly she turned her attention on the girl why she came here in the first place. With outstretched arms she went to her and squeezed her like Larek had done it. " I heard what happened. I´m so sorry. Is there anything I can do for you?"

" Yeah, I need clothes. I can´t stay here any longer", Maria had been ready to go two hours ago. The smell hanging in the air was slightly upsetting her stomach and she wanted to look after her parents. Besides the tension in this room was crushing, it was like everybody waited for her to lose her head or have a meltdown.

Corly was tempted to laugh. Some things would never change and not even hundred lifes would make a difference. That girl could never stay on her ass and rest, even if her life depended on it. Chuckling quietly she waved her hands over the ugly gown on Marias body and switched it into a pair of jeans and a white wool jumper. " So. That had been taken care of. Something else I can do?".

Maria was close to say that she should bring Lykus out of here, because Michael seemed to be seconds away from strangling the mentioned person. But she didn´t want to add fuel to the fire and she knew that she would do that when she interfered between the two males. The last time she had done that she had been called a traitor. " Can you get everybody out. I want to talk to Michael. Alone".

" No problem", Corly turned to the others scattering around the room and trying to listen what the girls were talking. " Out. Shoo. There´s nothing to see anymore. Visiting hours are over", without as much as using her powers the people went towards the door. Quickly she snatched the arm of her former crush and pushed him in the direction of her sister. " You stay. We´re all waiting outside", with a tiny grin on her face she urged everyone out of the room and closed the door tightly behind her.

Michael wanted to be everywhere, just not here and not at this moment. His feelings were still too violent, although he knew it wasn´t her fault. But the thought to see her one day with another man taking care of their children was more than he could bear. With every other girl he wouldn´t even care, but not with her. " What do you want?".

Maria was prepared to see his protective walls shooting up, yet it still pained her. She also wanted him to be the father of her twins. She was sure that they could have found an agreement with the kids, even if they were momentarily not together. However this drove the wedge deeper into their damaged relationship and it remained to be seen if they could repair it again. " I want that you´re not so cold towards me. I want this situation as much as you do. I would much rather have you as the father, but we can´t change that. So all I´m asking you is to not let your anger with me or Lykus be in the way of your duty. We can´t allow us any mistakes anymore".

" So you´re saying you want me to swallow my anger and do like nothing ever happened? You want me to forget that my girl is carrying the children of a guy I hate with a passion? Great, why didn´t I think of that?", Michael was more than pissed off and that usual tended his sarcasm to hit full force. It was his way of letting his frustation out and get his temper in check before he hurt someone with his dangerous powers. Even if he was furious with Maria, he didn´t want to injure her in any kind. Well at least not physically.

Maria tiredly rubbed her face with both hands. If she would have had the strenght, she would have gladly joined this fight. But her energy lever was on the low and she needed a little time and maybe something edible to get back on her feets again. " You know, this situation isn´t easy for me,too and all I´m asking you is to be a good friend, like the others are. But I´m obviously barking at the wrong tree", disappointed and sad she got her shoes, which stood besides the bed and walked out. She didn´t even have the power to be angry with him.

The others noticed the expression on her face as soon as she stepped from the room. Immediately Tess, Liz and Isabel were at her side and led her along the hall, all the while saying mean things about Michael, which got a few small smiles from her.

**Later**

After Maria looked after her parents and noticed their conditions, which was still devastating, she and her friends were on their way to the underground compound in an old army truck, which Larek "borrowed" from a human base. The mood was swaying from fear to nervousness and back again. Tess had almost bit off all her fingernails, Liz was constantly brushing her hair from her face, Kyle was keeping his sister in sight in case she was feeling sick, Max seemed to be in his own world, Isabel was staring out of the opening of the green cover around them, Sean watched his feet, Michael was quietly sulking far away from everyone else and Maria tried to keep awake. The trip to her inner child had been more exhausting than she thought. Just as she was losing the battle against sleep, the vehicle came to a halt and startled everybody. Seconds later Nolak and Larek appeared at the exit and shood the gang out. As soon as the last one of them was in the open, they started their trek to the highest boulder standing in the desert. Quickly checking the surrounding, the two oldest members put their hands on either side of it and immediately a white sign, a mix between a circle and a sword going through it, appeared and the stone slide aside. Checking everything again, one couldn´t be too careful, they all stepped inside the huge looking elevator. When the door closed behind them the light changed from bright to darker and a light rumbling was heard. Then a soft melody was playing over speakers hidden in the cubicle, which Larek reacted instantly and started humming the rhythm while doing something that seemed to be dancing. Nolak just shook his head and wondered why he was still surprised about most of the things his younger friend made.

" Could you maybe be still for like two seconds".

Larek just smiled at his companion before he began to sing loudly to the song. Finally the others recognized it. It was Highway to hell from AC/DC. Everybody was sure that they stepped into the twillight zone, because this couldn´t be real. A moment later they all jumped when the cubicle came to a sudden stop and the door parted. The picture greeting them was alarming and terrifying together. The long and wide passageway was filled with people in uniform quickly walking around, a few of them were soldiers, others seemed to be scientist and the remaining were looking like they didn´t belong here. Slowly the group tried to make their way through the chaos without standing in the way of someone. They stepped along the tiled walls, the only indication that a base was hidden in a huge rock, because the floor was purely sand and soil. The lights above them flickered at a few spots and made the hallway looking bigger and more frightening. Even if the ceiling was extremely high above them, they all felt a little trapped. Liz clung to Max like a second skin, while Tess openly eyed everything with wonder. Sean, who was the only one being here for the first time, was impressed about the size of this base and how organized everything appeared. Kyle was a tad bit intimidated from the impressions around him and for the first time he really realized that the training was over. They were in a real war. He glanced at his sister besides him and saw her tired eyes staring at the back of Michaels head.

" You alright?".

Maria faced him and managed a small smile in his direction. She knew he was just worried about her, but she wasn´t about to break. Everybody was treating her like a glass figurine or a defenceless child. She was fine. " Yeah. And I would appreciate it if you all would stop asking me that every few seconds. I´m not made of porcelaine okay".

Kyle took her hand and squeezed it. He was well aware of the fact that she hated to be mothered, but they all had a good reason this time and they just wanted to keep her around them for a little bit longer. " Fine, we´ll try. But I make no promises".

" Great. Why do I even say something, it´s not like anyone listens to me", Maria hoped they arrived soon at their destination, because her back was killing her and her stomach was loudly growling for something to eat. The boys had eaten all donuts and so there was nothing left for her when she came back.

Nolak used the fresh silence of his young troop to explain a few rules they had to follow down here. Although everyone had waited almost two decades for the moment the rightful royals would join the fight, they wouldn´t be in charge. They were just soldiers and had to listen to higher ranked men. At least for a while. Most of the people in this base had trained all their lifes for the war ahead of them and wouldn´t take it lightly if some teenagers would take their places, even if they knew about Rath and Marianna. This was no vacation and they all had a tight schedule everyday, starting with the morning exercise before breakfast and ending with the planning of an attack in the evening.

Maria already expected that and she could accept most of it. But she couldn´t wrap her mind around the fact that they didn´t do anything to take revenge for her parents. " And when do we strike back? I mean they had been sending a message and we have to respond, so that they know we received it".

" Already taken care of. But unfortunately we either were fooled about the location or they have moved", Larek had immediately given the order to give them something they would never forget. But except for abandoned buildings, they didn´t find a living creatures in Copper Summit. And now they tried to locate them again. All they could do was keeping quiet and wait for them to make another move.

Hanson choose this moment to approach them, surprised to see all so early here. When his eyes landed on Maria and Kyle, he laid his hands on their arms to show his respect. Quickly nodding at them, he addressed Nolak. " What are you doing here? We didn´t expect you until tonight".

The older man glared at his younger fellow, something was rubbing him the wrong way about this guy. Although Larek told him that it was really his half brother, he still didn´t trust him. Especially not as long as this nagging feeling in his guts was telling him otherwise. " What did you expect, that I would sent them back home? Khivar sent a warning and I didn´t want them in the open, where they could be killed".

" No. I´m just stunned to see you. No need to get bitchy on me, old man", Hansons smile was as fake as the boobs of Pamela Anderson. And his teasing tone didn´t match the angry gleam in his dark eyes. But it disappeared pretty quick when he noticed the cold glance directed at him from Nolak.

Larek interfered instantly before the both of them would start a fight in the middle of the hall, where everybody could see them. It wasn´t good for the moral of the soldiers to let them witness an open attack on each other, even through they were on the same side. " Would you both stop it! We have other problems at the moment! If you want to beat yourself up, do it quietly and not here".

Hanson turned his attention away from the pain in his ass and focused on his half brother instead. His expression already changed to a friendlier one and this time his smile wasn´t fake anymore. " Whatever you want bro. We´re clearing our disagreement another time".

" Why do I get always stuck with you? Don´t you have to be back with Nicolai? Maybe then you can start bothering him, instead of annoy the hell out of me", echoed the voice of Corly from the walls. She was sounding very pissed off and close to kill someone.Everybody turned around and saw her pushing a wheelchair with Alex sitting in it towards them. Her expression matched her voice while Lykus tried to keep up with her. He made an attempt to talk to her, but unfortunately for him she ignored it. Until she was with them. " Thank god. Please tell me I´m released from babysitting him", she pointed at the attachement behind her before facing her sister. " I´m sorry Maria, I know you were together with him for a long time. But how could you sleep with him?".

Maria was spared finding an excuse in the form of Lykus interrupting her try to say something. He glared at Corly while lifting his finger in her direction. " Hey, I´m not that bad. Besides I don´t find out everyday that I will be a father soon".

At that an angry snort resounded from within them. All turned to Michael, whose eyes had changed to an almost black color and were looking at the father to be with so much hate, that it was nearly tangible. Strangly it was no wonder and they all wondered how long it would take before the first punches were thrown. " Thank god for that. The world doesn´t need more of you. It´s enough that you got Maria pregnant".

" What is you´re problem? You have her trust, her heart and her love. What more do you want? Okay, they´re not your kids, I can respect that. But seriously, why can´t you accept that she had a sex life before you came into the picture", Lykus was so sick of the verbal attacks towards him. Well, part of him understood where the other man was coming from. He would act the same if he would find out that the woman he loved expected offspring from another. However they weren´t enemies, actually they weren´t even friends, but the point was they stood on the same side.

Michael felt Rath threatening to break from his bonds and kill the bastard slow and extrem painful in front of all the witnesses. He already imagined the pleasure in seeing the lights dying in the scumbags eyes, the feeling to have the power to end a life so quickly, to have someone at his mercy. But then he sensed his sister and Maria. They both tried to calm him down. It even worked for a few seconds. " It has nothing to do with that. I just don´t like you, I think I have to keep you in sight, because I trust you as far as I can see you and that´s not far believe me".

Lykus smirked cockily at his opponent before going to deliver the final punch. And this time it was below the belt. He could be pretty nasty, too if he wanted. Just because he had kept in the background didn´t mean that he was a coward. " Why do you think I care what you think about me? I´m just here because of Maria and to keep her safe. You couldn´t do the job the last time, so I see to it that it doesn´t happen again".

" You dirty son of a bitch, I´m going to bust your ass and keep it as a trophy", Michael had finally enough from the other man. He lunged forward and was prepared to dish out a nice punch to the rips when something caught him and tossed him backwards. With a hard slam he crashed on the floor and lost his breath for a moment. Then he looked up at the truck hitting him square in the chest and propelling him into the air. Surprised he saw Lykus sitting up on the ground as well and an angry female glaring dangerously at him.

Maria looked between the males trying to make her crazy. She was so fed up with getting treated like a object and not like a human being. She noted that the others stepped away from her and tried to be invisible. " I have enough from you both! You fight about me like you own me! But neither of you has given any thought how I feel! I´m the one standing between you and you don´t care what I´m thinking about this whole situation!", she made a little break to get air in her lungs again and to get her powers under control. As much as it would make her happy to see them both suffer, she couldn´t risk it with them all underground. " Don´t you notice that you hurt me with all the tension! I have enough problems on my own at the moment, I don´t need yours, too! So if you want to kill each other, do it somewhere else. Some place I don´t have to witness your pissing contest", she faced the two stunned looking man to see if they understood everything she said. Relieved she realized that she had indeed manage to make them speechless. " If you excuse me, I´m hungry and want to find something to eat".

Kyle, Alex and even Max hid their silent snickers behind coughs while Liz and Isabel glared at them. Tess helped her brother back on his feets and brushed the dust from his clothes. At least until he slapped her hands away from his body. Lykus got pulled up from Nolak and Larek, both seemingly trying to dissemble their amusement. Sean watched worriedly after his cousin, afraid she was taking on more she could carry and Corly inwardly cheered of joy, because her sister spoke out what every women felt.

" All right, show is over folks. Now follow me, we´re bringing you all to your sleeping place", Nolak remembered that he was the oldest in the pack and he should behave like that as well. So he did his duty and lead them to the common room where all soldiers spent the few hours sleeping. Of course males and females were seperated. He was curious how they would react when they saw that they had to share.

**Later that day**

Michael was on his way to Maria to apologize to her. He had been having time to think about everyting and he realized he overreacted slightly. Besides with that he could show her that he was more mature than pansy Lykus and do the right thing when he noticed that he made something wrong. Alright, maybe he had a little help from Tess, who had a long talk with him about the proper behaviour towards the other gender. She pointed out to him that most women didn´t like to get treated like a trophy, which was passed around between males nor did they like to be in the middle of a macho competition. But to his defence he thought he had a good reason for his outburst. Love was turning every man into a neanderthal and made them crazy when it wasn´t returned. Until the break up from Maria, he hadn´t understood Zan and why he suffered so much after Ava died. Now he knew how it felt to lose someone, even if in his case his love was still alive. But it was more painful to be close to her and yet so far away. To see her interact with others like nothing was different, like their relationship meant nothing at all. He had felt that stab into his heart when he saw her talking to a few soldiers, of course males, in the dining hall earlier after he and the others had brought their few possessions into the dormitory, totally surprised about the many beds lined side by side in the huge room. At first it looked like a sports hall, just filled with sleeping places. But after they, meaning Max, Kyle, Sean and himself, talked to a few fellows they thought it wasn´t that bad anymore. It could have been worse. The only downside was that they had to share the bathroom with fifty other men and there were just four stalls and four urinals. The shower was on the other side and had similarity with those in highschool. Other than that he was very content with the arrangement, especially considering the good food served here, which he, Sean and Kyle already checked out. For a cantine not bad, but still no french cuisine. Tess and Isabel just scrunched up their noses about the thought to share the room with so many women, not even mentioning the bathroom. But they knew that they had to get used to it eventually and after a while they stopped complaining. Liz and Corly were the only ones not saying anything bad, they had accepted their deal. Alex got his own room because of his handicap and Maria because of her delicate condition, so they both had nothing to add. Michael was glad that she was alone, so when he talked to her he could be sure that nobody else was listening. A small smile appeared on his face when he thought about the things they could do behind closed doors. But firstly he had to get her to forgive him, the reason for him to walk along the dark corridor. Just as he was in the process to turn the corner, he saw Lykus standing together with Maria in front of her room. They seemed to be in a serious conversation. Immediately he stepped backwards to hid himself and just stretched his head forward to watch them. His blood started boiling when he saw the bastard laying his hand on the arm of his girl and she was even covering it with her hand. Now she was smiling. Woah the dead man just made the biggest mistake of his life, he embraced her tightly and whispered something in her ear, which she responded with a small grin.

" What are you doing?".

Michael almost pissed his pants when he heard the voice besides him. Jumping startled he turned to the intruder. Breathing out relieved he noticed it was just Hanson. " Damn, did you have to scare me like that? I think my heart stopped beating for a second".

Hanson looked around the corner, just to see what made the other man so jittery. Immediately he witnessed Lykus and Maria arm in arm standing in the hall and looking too cozy with each other. Slowly he pulled himself back. " I´m sorry man. That has to be painful for you to see them both like that".

" They´re just talking. I have nothing to fear from the sucker", Michael said that more to himself than to his companion, who didn´t believe the bullshit anyway. Maria loved him, she told him that. Why should it change now?

Hanson raised an eyebrow at the other man, like he wanted to say if he was the only one seeing something different. " Are you sure? I mean she´s pregnant from him, that will them bind together for a long time. People already married with less reasons".

Michael felt rage slowly crawling up in him. He didn´t think about that at all. No, he didn´t want to be there when they decided to give their relationship another try or even choose to marry. It would break his heart to lose her like that. Before that happened he would rather kill them. Peeking around the corner again, he witnessed Maria smiling brightly at Lykus and kissing him excitedly. Pushing himself back he finally lost the battle against his darker side. " It won´t get that far, I will make sure of that".

" Then I would suggest you get the kids out of the way first. No babies no bond. You will see she will come back to you immediately", Hanson whispered in his ear and added fuel to the already blazing fire. It was the small nudge in the right direction.

Michael turned to him and his eyes were black and cold. Everybody seeing him now would instantly know that something was wrong with him, because not just his appearance had change, but also his aura. It felt deathly and dangerous. " That was my first thought, too", with a smirk on his face he came out of his hidding place, only to discover that neither Lykus nor Maria were at their spots anymore. Shrugging his shoulders he went into the room. Sooner or later she had to come back again.

Hanson meanwhile smiled diabolic after the easily led boy. His face almost disappeared in the darkness and made him look more evil like he was. " I´m really good. Not long and the royals are history".

TBC


	61. Chapter 61

**Chapter 59 The ressurection of an old soul**

Maria was searching for Michael. She already looked everywhere, she even went into the mens bathroom and discovered that a few of the soldier were built really nicely. Years of hard training had steeled their bodies at the right places and they weren´t to shy to show that. Whereas women started to scream as soon as a man saw them naked, men grinned and enjoyed the attention. Unfortunately she wasn´t there to stare at them, she had another mission. So with a quietly mumbled sorry she closed the door again and walked briskly towards her room. On her way she stumbled across Tess and Isabel, who were regarding their new wardrobe on each other. Since they were stationed at an army base, they had to dress like everyone else. Which meant beige cargo pants, beige t-shirts and black boots. And now the two girls had to see who looked better in it, which was a tough question. But Maria managed to satisfy both with her answer before asking them if they knew where Michael was. Tess immediately told her that he was on his way to her to apologize for his behaviour. Thankful about the information she continued her way to her room. Close to her destination she was held up from Hanson, who said that she had a visitor. Excitedly, knowing that her news would change everything, she opened her door and stepped inside. Michael was sitting on the bed with the nice white blanket, his eyes were immediately shooting in her direction. A little scared she stumbled back from the cold expression on his face. Something strange was going on here and she could feel it. Carefully she tried to not let him see her reaction and yet she stayed in sight of the door.

" I already looked for you all over the base. I have to tell you something".

Michael eyed her with a mix between disgust and anger. His jaw was moving under the skin and his hands were clenched tightly into a fist. " Really? What could you possible have to say to me?".

Maria was stunned to hear the edge in his voice. That was not the Michael she knew, it was like he transformed into Nicolai. Instantly a bad thought popped into her mind. But she threw it out as soon as she remembered that her half brother didn´t have the power to shapeshift. " I found something out. About the babies".

" Don´t mention those bastards in my presence", Michael had jumped so fast on his feets and pinned her on the wall with his elbow at her throat, that she didn´t even have time to react. His face was pretty close to hers and she could see his black eyes. " I loved you and I would have done anything for you. Hell I even sacrificed myself to save you. But you just dumped me to be with this scumbag".

Maria was taken aback from the attack. Struggling against the pressure on her air supply, she was afraid for the first time, afraid that the most important man in her life had turned into her worst enemy. " Please, you´re hurting me", she tried to cut through to him, because she was sure that it wasn´t him. Something was controlling him. But all she got in return was that he pressed harder. " I don´t know what you think, but there isn´t anything between Lykus and me. There could never be anything as long as I still love you".

Michael shook his head. He wouldn´t believe her lies any longer. She had just been using him all this time, because there couldn´t be other explanation to why she was doing that to him. " Do you think I believe this bullshit? How gullible do you think I am? He, answer me!".

" I can´t...breath", Maria noticed her vision was getting blurry and panic was slowly setting in. Fearing that her children could get hurt she took her last energy and blasted Michael off of her. He dashed with full force through the air and crashed against the wall with a loud bang. She winced slightly when she saw him sliding on the ground, worrying that she had severly hurt him. Slowly she moved closer to him, all the while holding her throat and healed the almost crushed windpipe there. " What has gotten into you? You could have really hurt me".

Michael looked up at her and his eyes were the normal hazel color again. He even lost this angry expression he had sported moments ago. It was like whatever had possessed him to act like that was gone and now it was only him again. " I´m sorry. I didn´t want to cause you any harm", then his eyes took on the black color again. " Just your babies", with that he jumped to his feets again.

Maria startled when he leaped towards her and stepped back. Unfortunately her foot got tangled up with the leg of the bed and she fell on the floor. Afraid she tried to stand up, because she knew that she would be in disadvantage lying there. But her luck ran out and before she could lift some body part Michael was already sitting on her legs and pressed her hands besides her head. Trapped under his weight she felt tears spilling from her eyes. " What´s going on with you? Tell me so that I can help you".

" I don´t need help. I just have to get rid of the children. Then you will come back to me", Michael concentrated on her wrist and within seconds her hands were bound with an invisible cuff on the floor. As much as she wanted she couldn´t move her arms anymore. " I love you so damn much that I would do anything to get you back were you belong. You belong to me and nobody else", his hands trailed down her t-shirt until he came to the hem of it. Then he shoved it upwards to reveal her still flat stomach. Just a hint of a swelling was showing that two babies were resting in there. For a moment he eyed the spot before he put his hands on it.

Maria realized what he wanted to do and kicked out with her feets. Desperate she wriggled with her whole body and tried to rip her arms from the grip holding her prisoner. " Please. Don´t do it. Don´t kill your children".

Michael stopped what he was doing and glanced at her stunned. Did he hear her right or was this a trick to spare her? " What? Say that again".

" They´re yours. You can check it if you don´t believe me", Maria calmed down slightly as soon as she noticed that his hands lifted from her belly and he was staring from it to her face and back again. She just hoped that he really believed her and didn´t decide to continue what he started.

Michael was torn between hoping that she told the truth and the thought that she could just play a game with him. It was like he was two person in one body and they both seemed to battle for dominance. Rubbing his face he struggled with himself to which voice he should listen now. " That´s a trick. You just want to save your children".

Maria used his distracted state to push all her strength in releasing her arms. Seconds went by and nothing happened. Then suddenly she felt it, something was sliding from her wrist. Immediately she shoot up with her torso and shook her hands, which were a little sore from the pressure on it. " I want to save our children".

" No that can´t be. I saw it", Michael was still fighting out to whom he should listen. It was almost driving him insane. His head felt like it wanted to split in two and his powers seemed to go crazy. Little things around them exploded or floated in mid air.

Maria knew that she had to do something fast. She wasn´t as concerned about herself as she was with him. He was acting strange and she feared that she could lose him to his blind rage or worse he could hurt himself with it. Taking his face in her hands she made him look at her. Surprised she noted the swirling emotions in his eyes. " Calm down and let me in. I can help you", she waited until she had his whole attention before sending him a little of her inner serenity. As soon as she realized that he wasn´t so all over the place anymore and was steadily staring in her eyes, she withdrew one hand. Gently she grasped his hand and guided it to her belly. Then she started to open her mind to let him see what really happened with Lykus.

**Flash**

Lykus was remorseful apologizing to her. He said that he acted like an ass and that he didn´t want to hurt her in any way. He could admit to be jealous about the love she had for Michael and had been having for Rath. But he would never interfere, even if it appeared that way. Although it were his children growing inside her, he knew that there wouldn´t be more between them, ever. Maria was glad to hear that and she accepted his apology with an embrace. After that he wanted to touch her belly to see how his kids were doing. As soon as he came near her skin an electric shock went into his hand and hurt him. A really good sign that he wasn´t the producer. Finally she had proof that Michael was it, because if a woman was pregnant the only male allowed to touch the belly was the father. Happily she had threw her arms around him and even kissed him, she had been so happy to knew that now. Everything would be going right again. Excitedly she said goodbye to Lykus to went searching for Michael to give him the good news

**End Flash**

Maria saw tears in Michaels eyes and felt relieve flooding her body. His features softened again and the confusion in his glance had finally disappeared. She had thought she had lost him. Thankfully their bond had been so strong that he remembered who was in front of him. " Do you believe me now?".

" Oh my god! What have I done. I´m so sorry. I don´t know what came over me", Michael scrambled to his feets and darted across the room to the door in a haste. He just wanted to be far away from her as he could in case he would attack her again. But unfortunately his exit route was blocked from a stuck door and all his efforts to open it didn´t help anything at all. Panicked he pounded on it.

Maria held the only way out shut with her powers. She hadn´t meant to make him feel like he did something wrong, which was big coming from her after she got almost killed from him. But she had seen in his eyes that it wasn´t entirely him in there. Something or someone had been controlling him from afar. With wobbly legs she stood up from the ground and went to him. " It´s okay. Nothing happened. I´m fine and so are the twins".

Michael flinched back when he saw that she wanted to touch him. He didn´t want her near him, he was a monster, something she had to get out of the way before he caused her anymore harm. She was the only person apart from his family he wanted to protect from everything bad. " Let me out please. I can´t trust myself anymore".

" I don´t want you to go", she cupped his face lovingly, afraid to push him deeper into his guilt, but more afraid to let him leave in this condition. The last time she had seen him that devastated, she had been there for him. Now she wanted to do the same again, after all it wasn´t his fault what happened. " That wasn´t you, something made you act so out of control".

Michael tried to get out of the hands holding him. Didn´t she understand that he would never forgive himself if he hurt or even killed her? He didn´t want to be there to see what it would do to him and the others. She was too important to him. " And. It won´t change anything. I can´t be near you in case something like that happens again".

Maria almost laughed, thinking about the exact situation months ago between them. Just that the roles were reversed and she was trying to protect him from herself. But this time neither of them did something wrong. She had felt something in his mind when she connected with him and it was gone now. Either she had scared it or she had destroyed it. " It won´t. I took care of it".

" How can you be so calm? I tried to kill you just a few seconds ago!", he wanted to shake her to make her realize that it wasn´t just a little fight they had, he had wanted to get the babies out of the way. His own flesh and blood. The thought alone was making his stomach turn.

Maria smiled reassuringly at him while she caressed his cheeks with her thumbs. If she would have felt the hate coming from him was really his emotions, she would have reacted differently. But she knew that it wasn´t him. Besides he had said that he loved her and that after all the shit behind them. " You could have easily let me kick the bucket. But you didn´t do it. Some part of you was still hesistant about using your powers to hurt me".

Michael felt his nerves coming down from the high they had been on. His head was clearer now and his heart was beating normally again. The uneasy feeling in his chest was gone,too. He didn´t know how she managed to calm him down, but she made it. She always knew the words he needed to hear in such moments. Kissing her forehead he looked into her eyes. " The next time something like that happens, don´t hesistate to do everything to defend yourself, okay? Even if it means to kill me".

" Let´s hope it won´t come to that", Maria was glad to know that her words got through to him and he even heard them. She hated to see him suffering in any kind and then because of something so stupid nontheless. " How did that happen in the first place?".

Michael thought back at the spying he did on her and Lykus. The blinding rage crawling up in his spine and the searing pain to lose her to someone other. His emotion were already heightened, but the words from. Oh damn, he was so dumb. " It was Hanson. He said that I was out of the picture and I should kill the babies to get you back".

Maria was shocked to hear that. She knew Hanson for five years now and he never made any indication to not like her. He was always so helping towards her and he threatened Lykus more than once with arrest if he should just as much as laying a finger on a wrong place. She thought of him like a really good friend. " That can´t be. I know him, he wouldn´t do that".

" I have to find him and then I will rip his heart out of his chest and let him eat it", Michael pushed her softly aside and opened the door. Startled he came face to face with the bastard he was looking for. Angrily he grasped the other man at the shoulder and pulled him into the room. If he would kill someone he didn´t want any witnesses. And Maria didn´t count. " Just the son of a bitch I wanted to see".

Hanson smiled innocently at the pair which didn´t match the cold eyes staring at them. Something was definitely wrong with him and they both wondered why nobody already noticed anything in that regard. It was so obvious, at least when one looked closer. " Don´t start with calling names. I just did my job. Don´t take it too personal".

Michael was on the brink to rip the scumbag apart. He was just hindered from doing something foolish in the form of Maria holding him back with her hand grasping his arm. She was almost in the same condition as him, but seemed to have more control over her emotions because nothing was appearing on the outside. " Personal! Because of you I almost killed my wife! I take that very personal!".

" She´s not your wife and she won´t ever be", Hanson reached around with his right arm and pulled something from the waistband of his cargo pants. Scared the other two saw it was a dangerous looking knife glinting in the light. " I´ve got orders to kill her and because you wasn´t man enough to do it, I have to get my hands dirty now".

Immediately Michael pushed Maria behind him and planted himself in front of her like a wall. If someone wanted to harm her had to go through him first. Nothing and no one was touching his family. " You won´t come near her. Before you even can lift a finger I will snap your neck so that you can see your ass".

Maria wasn´t so comfortable with him playing her hero again. The last time he died at that and she couldn´t save him. She didn´t want to see the same happen again. Fearless she stepped around her bodyguard and confronted the man she had thought was a friend. " What have you done to Hanson?".

" Oh, you´re not so dumb like Nicolai made you out to be. I´ll have to remember to tell him that after I´ll bring your worthless carcass to him", the Hanson imposter scratched his left temple with the knife while he regarded her properly. Too bad that she had to die and to bad he didn´t like to screw dead girls. But maybe in another life. " Reshak is not alive anymore, obviously. But he gave a good cover for me".

Maria struggled against the arms trying to pull her back. She couldn´t give up now, this guy knew things and maybe he could be still useful for them. Although she hated the thought that they trusted the enemy for so long. " How long?".

The guy in the Hanson disguise sprouted off a strange laugh, it sounded kinda eerie in the quiet room and it seemed to bounced off on the walls like an echo. " I think it´s almost 3 years now. It had been so easy to kill him, really. Piece of cake. I took his position and nobody noticed the difference, not even his half brother, the great Larek".

" You bastard. You´re the mole", Maria couldn´t control herself any longer and punched him hard in the face. Satisfied she saw blood sprinkle from his nose and down his chin. The knife in his hand forgotten she lunged for it.

Unfortunately she didn´t see Michael moving at the same time and both collided with each other. Together they fell forward in the direction of the bleeding traitor and knocked him on the ground with them. The knife dropped out of his hand and skidded across the floor. In the midst of tangled limbs and injured body parts Maria tried to get out of her position sandwiched between the two males. She stretched her arm as far as he could reach towards the weapon while her legs kicked the weight off of her. Finally managing to escape the human knot she took the knife in her hand and jumped to her feet. When she turned around with the deathly weapon pointed away from her, she noticed too late the body coming her way. Before she could react Michael crashed against her and the knife impaled itself in his belly. Shocked she looked into his wide opened eyes, feeling something wet and warm tripping on her hand. For a moment she was thrown back to the day when she was in the same position with Rath. He was staring at her the same way he had then. This stunned and scared expression, like he couldn´t believe what happened. With tears in her eyes she tried to hold him upright, already thinking about dragging him across the dark halls towards the hospital wing of the base and getting him help. But he was too heavy for her and they both landed with a loud thud on the ground.

The Hanson imposter laughed loud, liking this twist and pitying Nicolai for not witnessing this great moment. " I knew it. You´re a killer. Everyone around you dies because of you", having said his piece he walked to the exit to get the hell out of here before someone noticed anything. Sadly the moment he held the knob in his hand the door opened.

" What is going on here?", Sean tried to step into the room and watch what games had been played here. The noise had aroused his attention when he walked by to get to the food hall where the others were already waiting for him. Surprised he saw his cousin sitting on the ground with a bleeding Michael laying in her arms.

The cheater was startled for a second before pushing the boy out of his way and running out of the room. Maria knew they couldn´t let him get away. " Sean catch him".

Sean didn´t ask questions like usual and dashed after the bastard in a hearbeat. On the way he screamed for the soldiers and that a traitor was among them and he needed help tacking him down. Thankful for the years of running away from the law he strained his legs to go faster. Just before he was close enough to tackle him, a few soldiers guarding the entrance stepped in the way and stopped the getaway. Knocking him out they dragged him after them towards the interrogation room while a slightly out of breath Sean watched after them, cursing his smoking habit.

Meanwhile Maria had made Michael more comfortable on the ground as much as it was possible in the situation and kept his face in sight. She would see there first hand how bad his condition was really. His eyes were still open, but the blood pouring out of his mouth was alarming. " I´m sorry. I didn´t see you. Please don´t die on me again", with shaking hands she ripped his t-shirt open, always the knife in her view and eyed the wound closer. Choking back a sob she saw the many blood dripping on the floor beneath his body and making a big puddle around him while the offending things was sticking almost until the hilt in his flesh, which meant it was pretty deep. " Oh god, I didn´t want that", close to tears she looked into his eyes, seeing the calmness in it. The last time she had witnessed it he had been on the brink to die. Stroking his cheeks with both hands she tried to think about a solution. She knew he wouldn´t survive the way to find help and she wasn´t sure if she had enough energy to drag him around for that long anyway. Straining her brain cells to the maximum an idea came to her. She wasn´t sure if her powers would manage to heal such a wound, but she would try it for him. " Michael you have to hold on for a little longer. I´ll try to heal you, but you have to help me do it. Do you think you can manage that?", after she got a tired nod she took place besides him and gripped the knife with one hand. " On three I will pull the knife out, okay", counting to only two she took all her strength and got the weapon out of the belly with a loud cry of pain coming from Michael. The bleeding intensified immediately and Maria pushed her hand on the injury to exert pressure on it and maybe get it under control. Then she looked into his eyes. " Clear your mind and concentrate on me", slowly she noticed the panic leaving her body and making place for peace. Breathing in and out evenly was easing her mind and before she knew what happened she felt the connection between them springing to life. Seconds later her hand started glowing red and the healing began. Tissue for tissue, vein for vein she repaired every damage done. Mending vessels and even a punctured liver she worked her way through everything. Until she noted her energy level was on the low and she had to stop the healing. Feeling worn out and slightly dizzy she was back in her body. Almost fainting she sensed hands cupping her face and turning it around. Surprised and a little startled she saw in the hazel eyes of Michael. " Oh my god, you´re alive", relieve flooded her being and she threw her arms around him. Tears of joy were falling down her face.

" Hey, don´t be so shocked about that", Michael held tightly onto her. He always knew that she could do more than she realized and he was glad that he was right. It wasn´t nice to see his life passing in front of his eyes and knowing that he hadn´t done anything special or knowing he would leave the most important persons behind. From now on he would live differently.

Maria couldn´t still grasp the things happening in the last few minutes. It was like she was in some kinda trance. " I´m sorry. I saw you too late and then everything was already over and I saw the many blood and the knife sticking from you belly and I panicked and I was afraid that you would die again and I couldn´t do anything against it".

Michael caressed her head tenderly. She had to calm down, it wouldn´t be good for the babies if she stressed so much. Besides everything had been having a good ending, nobody died and Maria could finally prove herself that she could make a difference in this life. " Shhh. It´s over and I´m still here. Nothing happened".

" I almost lost you through my hands. I could have killed you", Maria didn´t want to let go of him ever again. She didn´t care about the war or food or sleep. She just wanted to sit here with her arms around her lover and forgetting the world outside.

Michael thought about the irony of this situation. A few minutes before he got stabbed he had been trying to harm her. No wonder they never found a partner, they both were made for each other and nobody else would have survived their attacks. " Then I suggest we call it quits".

Maria chuckled slightly through her tears. The shock had been gone and all her nerves had shifted down a gear. She hadn´t even felt how tense her body had become when she healed, but now she noticed them relaxing and it was the best feeling in the world. " I´m absolutely alright with that".

" Then you can release me. My butt is getting sore from sitting on this hard floor", Michael had nothing against the idea to hold her all day long. But he wasn´t comfortable with his seating arrangement and he felt a few bumps sticking at strange places.

Maria finally let go of him and kissed him heatedly on the mouth before parting from him completely. She watched him standing up on his own, with a few moans and groans in between. Happily she eyed the spot where the knife had been and saw a small scratch. " Oh damn, I have to get you to the hospital ward after all. I left something behind".

Michael looked down at his body, past his torn t-shirt and the blood on his belly. Touching the small wound he felt a slight tear, but other than that nothing. She had done a really good job. Except for the visible evidence of the attack nothing else was to see anymore. " This small thing? Leave it".

" No. I didn´t save your life to lose you because of an infected scratch. We´re going", at least after she could trust her legs again, because right now they felt like pudding and were shaking like crazy. And her stomach had time to settle down.

Michael finally realized that he had a conversation with her sitting on the ground the whole time. Confused he searched her eyes for any sign of discomfort. Kneeling down he cupped her face and eyed her properly. " Are you feeling sick? Is it the babies?".

Maria smiled soothingly at him to take away the worry. She was fine, just a little worse for wear, after all she didn´t save a life everyday. Add in her pregnancy with the constant nauseau feeling all day long and everyone would need a little breather after what she went through. " Don´t worry. I´m just shaken up. I need a few moments and then I´m as good as new or even better".

" Should I carry you? After all you´re my hero", Michael would feel better when he knew that someone checked her. She had to have been using much powers to heal him and with the babies demanding more than half of her energy it couldn´t have been too good for her or the twins.

Before Maria could open her mouth to ease his troubled mind, the door to her room almost flew out of its hinges and startled the pair on the ground. Both took on immediately a fighting stance with their hands outstretched and pointing with them at the intruder. Annoyed they realized it were just their friends plus a few soldiers.

Michael dropped his arm and tried to cover his exposing torso with crossing his arms over his chest. " Did you hear something about knocking before entering? If not I can give you a lesson".

" Oh my god. It´s worse than I thought", Tess pushed everyone, including her boyfriend out of the way and went to her brother. Worriedly she looked at the still bleeding wound and touched the sore spot softly. Sean had already informed them about what he saw and about Hanson on the way here. She couldn´t believe what she heard and what consequences would follow.

Michael counted quietly to ten before he stepped aside to be away from the poking finger. He knew his sister meant well, but she was slightly hurting him. And he felt so damn uneasy to be the center of the attention. He didn´t like to be looked at like he was an animal in the zoo. " It´s alright. Maria already healed everything. It was just a small accident and nobody died".

Kyle, seeing his sister sitting on the ground with her t-shirt and her hands smeared with blood, stepped around the sibling and walked towards her. The fact that she wasn´t standing up was worrying him immmensely. Bending in front of her he checked if she was hurt or even showed a tiny sign of exhausting. " How are you feeling? All body parts still intact or should I get you replacement".

" I´m a little tired, but otherwise unhurt", feeling slightly better she stood up with a bit of help from her brother and was relieved when she noticed that her legs carried her weight. Breathing deeply to get the nausea under control she rubbed her belly comfortly. She hoped that her pregnancy would get better with time, this eating and puking was driving her crazy. It was like she had bulimia. When she realized that everyone was staring at her concerned she shook her head. " It´s just a queasy feeling. Nothing unusual".

Sean, who kept himself in the background, finally appeared from behind two soldiers and regarded his cousin with a curious glance. Something bad had been happening here and she was making the impression like it was normal to sit on the ground with a bleeding male in her arms and screaming orders. " What had been going on here? I never saw you so scared before".

Maria exchanged a questioning look with Michael, asking permission to tell them the whole truth with her eyes. She didn´t want to say something that could hurt him or put him in the wrong light. Grinning he gave her a barely recognizable nod. They made a deal about being honest from now on and they had to keep that. So she turned back to the others. " Can we let someone check Michael first before I tell you everything? I couldn´t heal everything".

" Okay. But you have to promise to let you check, too", Kyle stayed at his sister side in case she would crash every moment when everybody stepped out of the room and walked towards the hospital wing of the base. His inside was still in knots, because she had opened their sibling connection and he had felt her panic and fear.

Sean and the guards were trailing at the end and just heard the gist of everything. That Hanson wasn´t Hanson. That he was the mole in their midst, that Michael was the father of the babies, that he tried to kill her in blinding rage. The last statement was followed with shocked expressions and a few angry glares until Maria said that he wasn´t himself in that moment. But despite that Kyle was still unsure to let the mentioned person not out of his eyes in case he would try to attack her again. Tess in return kept her boyfriend in her sight, fearing he could punch her brother. Thankfully everything stopped as soon as they stepped into sick bay and the military doctors spotted the strange group of people entering, which two seemed to be pretty hurt according to the bloody clothes. Instantly one of them called for a nurse and walked fast in their direction while another was already there to see after their patients. Before anyone could react Michael and Maria were lying on cots and were checked properly. The others stood around and watched everything from the sidelines.

The doctor treating Michael looked confused at the wound and the torn t-shirt with the many blood on it. Scratching his head he did the same again with the same result. " Something doesn´t add up. It looks like you were stabbed, but you just have a small injury".

" I had been stabbed, but my girlfriend healed most of it", he refrained from rolling his eyes. Why did he always got the genius? Great, now he had to answer many questions and everything he wanted right now was to be somewhere else with Maria hopefully at his side.

A snort was heard followed from a quiet chuckle. Everybody turned to the girl sitting on the cot now, after being declared healthy. " Girlfriend? You wish buddy. We´re still broken up".

Michael faced her with a small smile. She could say whatever she wanted, that kiss she gave him was anything but this of an ex girlfriend. That had been a kiss from the future wife and mother of his children. " I don´t think so. We´re expecting children now and that binds us together if you want it or not. Besides you almost ravished me after you healed me".

" Firstly, we´re in the millenium, which means we don´t have to be together to raise a child or even two. And secondly I did not ravish you. I just had been relieved that you survived and nothing more", Maria felt glad to get into the friendly banter with him again, it was distracting her mind from everything happening. She had missed this side of him the last few days and the way he made her feel.

Michael raised an eyebrow in her direction, clearly not believing her logic. But he was happy that she wasn´t treating him like a stranger anymore and that she hadn´t lost her wit with all the strokes of fate in her life." Oh really? Funny way of showing it. I almost needed a cold shower".

Maria glared at him, regretting to ever met him in both lifes. He was as charming as annoying, a deathly mix. She was amused and irritated together, which was often when he was near her or just close by. She was tempted to poke into his open wound, but the young doctor had just healed it. " Nothing new. You´re a man, you get horny watching wet paint dry".

" Damn, who told you that", sitting up on the cot he noticed his vision slightly spinning around him. Gripping his head with both hands he waited until the room stopped circling. In the meantime he felt two presences at his side. Obviously worried about him. " Don´t. I just got dizzy for a moment. I stood up too fast that´s all".

Tess was regardless of his words staying with him when he got on his feet. She had been so afraid when she heard what Sean told them. She could have lost her brother and she wouldn´t have been there for him. And now she wanted to make amends. " Be careful".

That were the last words coming from her before all hell broke loose, because as soon as the sentence was finished Michael just crashed on the floor and started convulsing with his complete body. His sister and Maria were straightaway kneeling besides him and tried to keep him down on the floor before he could hurt himself. A few seconds later Kyle and Sean joined the girls and helped them to hold the wriggling boy under them. Liz and Max screamed for the doctors again.

" What is going on here? What is happening to him", Tess had problems holding her brother. He was extremely strong. The noises coming from his throat were alarming and scared her.

The young doctor was the first one arriving and checking Michael´s eyes and even the inside of his mouth. Laying a hand on the boys forehead he felt a heat emitting from the skin. Not a good sign, confused he turned to the girl having healed the major part of the wound. " Are you sure you didn´t left anything hurt? Did you heal everything inside?".

Maria thought about the healing and the way she went through every injury step by step. She was thoroughly with that, because a small tear could get infected and be more painful. " Yes. Everything except the scratch. My powers stopped at this point. Why? Do you think I oversaw something?".

" Could be. He has a fever, his pupils are dilated and his tongue changed the color", the young man mulled that over. If the boy had an infect inside his body it wouldn´t show immediately like this. There was something else there. Something they missed the first time. " Help me get him on the cot again".

Sean, Kyle and even Max lent a hand and hefted the body of their friend on the provided place. They had to keep a strong hold on him because the shaking was still there although it wasn´t that bad anymore. Tess hadn´t let of her brothers hand the whole time and tears were streaming down her face. " What is it?".

The doctor took a small black object from a table near them. Everybody from Antar recognized the thing at the first glance. It was a scanner the healers took to check their patients for any kind of intern damage. Slowly he slid it over the body, up and down and back again. Then suddenly something beeped. " Oh shit! It´s poison. He got poisoned", worriedly he looked around him, seemingly searching for something. " Where´s the weapon? I need that knife. Now!".

" Sean, you and Kyle go into my room. I threw the knife on the floor. Bring it", Maria had to do something or she would finally loose her head. And she knew it wouldn´t be a pretty sight, for everyone. Besides she was used to giving orders, even if she did that just with her friends and family.

While the two boys stormed out of the room the others felt helpless standing around and watching their friend fighting for his life. Max, having listened to many hours to his medicine professor, remembered something he could told in the first few courses. Try to get a fever down before everything else. " I´ll get ice to get the temperature down".

Maria wasn´t so comfortable with this idea that he went alone. She didn´t trust anyone anymore, except for her friends. The reason why she wouldn´t let anyone wandering this dark halls without someone at their sides all the time. " Take Liz with you. I don´t want anyone alone right now".

" Got that", Max took the hand of his girlfriend and disappeared with her in a hurry. They both knew time was wasting and they probably hadn´t even enough of it at the moment.

Isabel, feeling left out and slightly out of place, stepped besides Maria to see what she could do. Seeing Michael lying there and knowing you can´t do anything had to be hard for the other girl, especially in her state. " What can I do to help?".

Maria was tempted to say that she should turn back the time and let her forgot the pain, but she knew that nobody had the power to do that. And even if she knew someone capable of doing that, she would never ask, because it wasn´t right to interfere into the circle of life. Every meddling would entail consequences and sometimes they would be worse than the thing they changed. " Stay with Tess and keep me updated about his condition", she turned to one of the soldiers and took the walkie talkie out of his belt without asking for permission. Switching the thing on and tuning it to a frequence, she gave it her friend. " I´m on line 2. Just push the red button. If anything goes wrong, call me immediately".

" Where are you going? What are up to?", Isabel wasn´t exactly content with the assigment, fearing that the other girl would do something stupid or dangerous or even both. And she was afraid that Michael would maybe really don´t make it through this. The thought alone was tearing her apart.

Maria faced her friend with a emotionless expression. She was so sick to get beat on. Now she would be the one doing the beating and she would do it properly. This time she wouldn´t play fair or even nice. She was done being the weak one. From this moment on she would play the game after their rules. " Don´t worry. I´m just talking to someone and maybe getting a few informations".

Alex, listening quietly to the conversation felt the hair on his neck standing up. A sense of doom was climbing up his body. He didn´t know much about transformation or shapeshifting, but he knew that the person in front of him wasn´t his best friend anymore. " Don´t get yourself in trouble. I don´t want to lose you, too".

" I´m being careful, I promise", Maria let a tiny smile appear to take the fear from her friend. Then she turned around, grasped the arm of the nearest soldier and dragged him behind her through the door out. They both had something to do. Something that would decide between making or breaking.

Isabel and Alex watched after her with worriedly before paying attention to the boy lying in front of them. Tess was still gripping his hand painfully tight and tear streaks were marring her face. She seemed not to have noticed the conversation around her nor that a few people were missing. Both hoped that the nightmare would end soon and everything would get normal again.

Meanwhile Maria and the young soldier, who was keeping his mouth shut the whole time they had wandered through the long hallways, finally came to their destination. A heavyly watched door made out of steel. Three guards with big weapons were standing in front of it and instantly tensed as soon as they saw them approaching. But when they spotted her, they stepped aside and lowered their guns.

" We already expected you. But you are the only one allowed entrance", the older one told her looking directly in her eyes. He flinched for a moment when he saw the barely concealed rage in her glance and the pulsating vein at her throat.

Maria ignored that comment. Like she needed someone at her side to do some damage. She was more than dangerous enough alone. Besides she didn´t wanted any witnesses when she did what she had to do. She wasn´t exactly a teamplayer at the moment. " All right. Keep the door locked and just open it when I tell you to. I don´t want to be interrupted, except if you have news about Michael. But other than that, it´s best to not listen".

The young soldier who came with her noticed for the first time why she had been choosen as commander and why everybody on this base feared her. She was one scary chick, despite her small size and the doll face. With growing unease he watched the petite girl disappearing behind the thick steel and the door closing with a loud clang. He hoped that she knew what she was doing and he prayed that whatever had been creating them would show mercy on her sinful soul.

**Interrogation room**

Maria strode confidently towards the man sitting bound in the middle of the big room. It wasn´t really a room, because there was no floor and the walls were just rocks, just the inside of a cave without an opening in the desert. There was no window, now air shaft and nothing except a lonely chair with the traitor held prisoner on it. A small light bulb was hanging over him and was creating strange shadows on his scared face. His eyes lost the arrogant glimmer and everything cockily was stipped off of him now. Slowly she bent on his level to stare him down. Satisfied she saw him swallow afraid.

" You can probably imagine why I´m here, can´t you?".

The Hanson impersonator nodded hesistantly. His view never wavered from her, because he was scared that she could kill him as soon as he didn´t pay attention. He had felt her the moment she stepped into the room and he knew that this wasn´t entirely Maria. She wasn´t that cruel. " The poison. You´re wondering about a cure".

Maria patted his head tenderly before taking his face in her hand and squeezing his jaw painfully hard. The grin on her face didn´t fit the cold eyes. " Good boy. But that´s not everything I want to know. I will ask you a few questions and I want true answers to that or else you will regret it".

" I can´t tell you anything, Khivar will kill me if I start spilling my guts", the man pleaded desperately, hoping that a small part of the nice girl was still in there somewhere. Besides his king was far more dangerous than she could ever be.

Maria released her grip on him and pushed his face away from her. Looking around her she searched for something. But after she found just rocks and more rocks, she decided to let her powers do the work for her. Concentrating on the wall to her right she put a little energy into the structure. Seconds later a small part of stone was breaking away and fell on the ground. Lifting it up she put her strength into turning the rock to long metal rod. A small nudge further and the tip was glowing red, colored from the heat. " I´m so glad you just said that".

The traitor saw the burning stick in her hand and he knew that she would use it to torture him. Wriggling his body to get out of the bonds holding him, he tried to find the right words to stop her. " Don´t do it. The Maria I know wouldn´t do that".

" Maria probably not", she smiled diabolic while her body changed. She was getting a little bit taller, her hair was changing to a darker blonde and got longer, her eyes twinkled in black, her features defined her face more and she looked more stronger with all the small muscle appearing on her arms. " But Marianna"

TBC


	62. Chapter 62

**Chapter 60 History repeats itself**

The enemy in disguise gulped nervously at the dark antarian eyes staring at him dangerously. Oh shit, before he had been having a slight chance to get out alive, but now he could kiss this world goodbye. Khivar had reassured him that Marianna wasn´t that powerful in her human form, because her body couldn´t handle alien strength and that she would give up as soon as she noticed everyone around her die. Unfortunately Rath hadn´t done a really good job and her parents were still alive, plus her brother and the annoying cousin had not even had a scatch on them. Her friends had her back no matter what and that was not good for their plan. Not good at all, an out of control antarian soldier such as her could do some damage on this planet.

" Now what? You want to kill me? We can work something out".

Marianna took the glowing stick and waved it in front of his face until he felt the heat gracing his skin. Her glance was cold and emotionless. Every human trait had been sucked out of her and at its place was now the younger generation of Khivar, like she would be his daughter. " I don´t work with traiters, sorry. That´s against my religion. But don´t worry, I won´t kill you. Yet".

The assassin tried to pull his head back to avoid getting branded from her. She was slowly scaring him with her cryptic messages. What did she mean with yet. Did she kill him after she knew what she wanted or did she wait for his answers to decide what to do with him? " What do you wanna know?".

" Oh you´re a quick learner, I like that. Okay, let´s lay down rules first. I´ll ask you a question and you answer. If I think you´re lying I will remodel your face until you look like a piece from Picasso. Do you undestand what I´m saying", to prove her point she held the hot tip close to his right eye before she pushed herself away from him to see his reaction. Satisfied she saw his nod to indicate he knew the rules. " Okay. What kind of poison is in Michael´s body and how can we heal him?"

The man on the chair was stunned. He thought she would ask who he was first and who gave the command. But some part of Maria was still in there somewhere. Slightly relieved he was breathing out inwardly. Maybe he would get out of here alive. " I don´t know. I was just told to kill you. Nicolai gave me this knife and said to stab you with it. Everything else would take care of itself".

Marianna looked deep in his eyes to see if he was honest. Not noticing anything, she held her hand over the tip of the stick and waited until it glowed brighter. Then she grinned at him. " Sorry that was the wrong answer", slowly and with all the time in the world she let the hot bar sliding over his sensitive skin of his right cheek. Steam was rising from it and the sound was sickening, even for her. The smell of burned flesh was hanging in the air as well as the scent of blood, which was dripping from his scratch. His teeth were tightly together to not give her the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. Seconds later she pulled the torture devise from his face and stepped back. " Okay, shall we start again? What kind of poison is in Michael and how can we heal it?".

" I don´t know. I swear I don´t know it", the not Hanson cried out scared. The cut was hurting like hell and throbbing. He could smell a slight iron and copper odor, he must be bleeding. Oh god, he didn´t want to die that way. Now he finally know how all his victims had felt when he played with them.

Marianna had pity with him. For such a dangerous soldier, he was pretty much a mommas boy, kinda embarrassing to watch. If she would have kept her soul, she would have shown mercy on this poor bastard. But unfortunately for him she left it in her room at home. " Alright. Then I will believe you for now", kneeling in front of him she took the rod and pointed with it on his crotch. One wrong move from him and he could say goodbye to his penis. " Who are you and what is your position?".

The wriggling traitor was sweating like a pig. Even now and then a drop of sweat was sliding over his open wound and it was really painful. He tried to muffle his screams by biting on his tongue. " My name is Hunter".

" I don´t wanna know your human name, scumbag", she took the free hand and made it into a fist before punching his face with it. His nose started to bleed immediately and it was bent a strange angle. The wail of pain was loud and thrilling, at least for her. " I want to know your birth name, your antarian name".

Hunter shook his head to clear his vision. He saw everything in blur and in double. He swallowed his nausea before making an attempt to speak. " I was called Hashna".

Marianna stumbled back shocked. She knew him, well she never meet him, but he had been the most cruelest person after Khivar. He had been trained that way before he could talk his first word. His parents had been put out of the way as soon as the boy had been born. He was raised in the castle, forced to have no contact to others and live the life as an outcast. If he wouldn´t have been behind the murder of so many people she would have had pity with him, because it wasn´t his fault that he got that way. " The assassin. You had been sent to handle the things nobody else wanted to do. I heard the stories about how you killed a man by letting him bleed to death for hours or the woman you raped again and again before slashing her from top to bottom".

" I was trained to do that. I didn´t know anything else", Hunter pleaded pathetically, trying to convince her that the crimes he had done weren´t his fault . Khivar had made him what he was today and sometimes he looked into a mirror and he dspised the face staring back at him. But he was what he was and no matter what he did nothing would change that.

Marianna remembered the life she had been living. Her supposed "father" had been heartless and cold towards her, her brother hated her with a passion and would have rather slept with scorpions than talking to her, a fiance who didn´t believe in her powers and killed her and a mother who was mostly absent. It wasn´t the best, but she didn´t became a monster like Khivar, she was the exact opposite from him actually. " Don´t you dare use this as an excuse. We alone are responsible for our actions. You´re weak, that´s your problem. Not the way you grew up or how you were treated"

Hunter knew that his tactic to distract her backfired. Damn, he couldn´t move his arms, his legs were chained to the legs of the chair and no matter how much powers he used nothing happened. He felt his bounds cutting into his flesh with every jarring to get free. His wrist were slowly looking like he wanted to slash them with all the blood pooling on the ground. " That´s easy for you to say. You lived in a castle with attendants, friends and family. You could walk around freely, smell the air and feel the earth under your feet".

" That shows how much you don´t know me", Marianna noticed his attempt to loosen the thick rope keepin his arms prisoner. Either he really made it of course without his hand anymore or he would give up or he would kill himself by bleeding to death. The options didn´t look good right now. Quickly she rammed the rod with the spike directly in his hand and nailed it on the chair in the process. The scream of anguish was louder this time. " I´m terribly sorry. But I wanted to help you. You could have really hurt yourself with cutting your hand off. I can´t let you die before I got my answers first. So how much of Khivars people are in this base and in our ranks?".

Hunter almost bit his tongue off. The pain was almost unbearable and his sight was getting darker. He was hopefully on the way to faint, because he didn´t know how much longer he could endure this torture. " Just me and Lykus".

Marianna saw the fear in his eyes and smelled the scent of blood For a moment she felt her stomach getting slightly upset. Thankfully it was just a short episode and went by as quickly as it came. Rubbing her belly she circled around him to not see his grimacing face. " Are you telling the truth?"

" Yes! Oh god yes! Now get this thing out of my hand!", Hunter screamed, almost going crazy with the pain starting to spread now. His complete arm was feeling like it wanted to fall off any minute and he would even welcome it. Everything was better than what he had to go through at the moment.

Marianna put her hands on his shoulders and bent down to his left ear. She lowered her voice to a whisper. It was unfair from her to be so cruel to him without a solid reason. Oh wait she had one. " Now now, don´t scream so loud. People will think I hurt you or something", she pulled herself in a standing position again, opened and yanked the belt out of her pants in one swift move before she tied it around his throat. Carefully she tightened it until she felt a resistance, she didn´t want to kill him after all. " I don´t want you to attract too much attention to us. Besides your screams are very disturbing for my ears", tugging a little at the belt, she was pleased to hear his quiet whimper. Good, just how she imagined it. " Okay where were we? Oh yes, Khivar. Where is he and where is your base located exactly?".

Hunter noticed the leather biting into his skin and it was adding extra pain to his obvious discomfort of being choked by a piece of clothing. He never would have thought he could get into such situation and then even with a woman twice as small as him. " Khivar is still on Antar. He´s waiting for a sign from Nicolai to come down to the base in Copper Summit. Everybody is hiding underground at some old mine from a man called Crawford".

" You don´t have it a little more detailed, do you?", she hadn´t been in Copper Summit, hence she didn´t know what he was talking about and she didn´t have enough time to search for it. A mine, he was funny, the complete town was full of it.

Hunter shook his head. He had been there one time, but he didn´t know how he could explain it better to her. She had never been in this town and no matter what he told her, she wouldn´t know which way. " Maybe you get a map and I´ll show the way?".

Marianna mulled the idea over for a second before discarding it completely. Like she wanted to waste time with trying to read a map. It was still one thing she couldn´t do, even after all those years. Straining her memory she thought she could maybe find something in Marias mind. But obviously she never had to do with maps either. " I´ll have a better idea. I´ll snoop around your head for information. It will save time and be more painful for you".

" Please. Don´t do it. I´m done", Hunter had witnessed many times when Nicolai pumped his informants for new developements. It wasn´t a nice thing to see. The cries, the pain and the misery afterwards. The people unlucky to survive it, were most of the time a sad piece of themself, not even able to eat alone.

Gripping his short hair in her hands she pulled his head back until he almost looked backwards. Angrily she held his jaw in a tight clutch and squeezed it. She hated it begging man, especially those who thought they were tough. It was so disgusting to see them fall. " I will decide when you´re done! You´re just speaking when I ask you a question".

Hunter felt the strain on his hairline and it distracted him from the pulsing pain in his hand, now slowly ebbing away. Maybe he was bleeding to death or shock had settled in. Either way he was thankful for the small break. " Okay".

" Good boy. Now hold still. I don´t want to damage too much", Marianna shook her wrists to relieve a little tension. Breathing deeply in she put her hands of either side of his head and tried to find the right position. Then she opened her mind to get into his. Immediately she was bombarded with visions, memories, dreams and fears. Strange the rough man was deadly afraid of flying. Some spaceman he was, scared to get into an airplane. He hoped to get back on Antar some day and built a home. His favourite part of the day was the morning, because a new day meant a new start. He loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, as well as chocolate cookies with caramell pieces on it. Pushing everything out of the way, she was looking for other information, something that would help her in any way. Suddenly she crashed against an invisible wall in front of her. Surprised she regarded the nothing, trying to find something solid. It seemed to be glass. Knocking on it, she knew that her first thought was right. Using a tiny bit of her powers she blasted the thing away before progressing further. Finally she founnd what she had hunted. She had a clear picture of the mine and the road to it, she even knew the location of the bathroom now. Satisfied she pulled slightly back, just to come across something that disturbed her more than anything. It had been a message from her half brother. Shocked she escaped his weak mind and went back into her own. Upset she stared at the shadow of a man sitting before her. That could not be, not now and not ever.

" What did you see?".

Marianna turned to the person that just spoke and was a little surprised to see Larek standing at the entrance of the room with a slight sad and slight scared expression on his face. She couldn´t blame him, it had to be hard to know that he trusted the enemy. " I have to get out of here. I have to warn everyone".

Larek was instantly alarmed at the messy state his friend was in, especially the fact that she turned to her past self. . Her feelings were all over the place and she was almost hysterical. Walking briskly towards her he grasped her shoulders and looked in her eyes. She had obviously seen something that terriefied her. " What is wrong? Tell me".

" Nicolai plans to destroy Roswell. He wants to kill every citizen of the town to show his power to Khivar", Marianna had seen so much in his twisted mind, a few things that didn´t even make any sense to her, but some she recognized and feared. Her half brother talking quietly behind his fathers back about taking over the throne as soon as the royals were out of the way, killing her before Khivar could get his hands on her and Rath, who put the bomb under her fathers car. But those things were not making her terriefied at the moment, although it was bad, she had to set priorities.

Larek stared at her opened mouthed. She had to be kidding, that couldn´t be true. Looking at his brother and the injuries she inflected on him, he was sure that it wasn´t a joke. Sighing loudly he turned his attention back to Marianna. She had to have a good reason to treat him that bad. " Did he tell you something, you know about why he tried to kill you?".

Marianna was slightly taken aback from this question. A whole town was on the brink to get destroyed and he was curious about that? Okay, if she thought it would be her brother, she would probably care more about him than something other. " I´m sorry. The guy you seeing isn´t your brother. He´s name is Hashna and he killed Reshak three years ago".

" Oh. Oh my god and I didn´t notice anything?", Larek shook his head sadly. All those times and he never realized any difference. He wasn´t a fool usually and he wondered why he oversaw that. Maybe he should have had paid more attention to his brother then he would have detected something sooner.

Marianna felt bad for her friend and embraced him shortly. Even if the apocalypse would be knocking at their door, time for consoling someone should always be there. " Don´t beat yourself up over that. I dated Lykus for over three years and never realized who he really was. They´re really good actors".

Larek was amazed over the power her hugs had. She didn´t need to use big words and yet everybody felt better, just with her presence. Someday he would ask her how she did that, but the moment wasn´t now. He had a reason for coming actually. " Tess send me to get you. Michael asked for you".

" Really? That´s finally good news", Marianna´s eyes sparkled and seconds later her appearance changed back into her human form. Now she was Maria again. The nice, lovable and stubborn person was back and she put her past self into the background until she would need her once more.

Larek´s complete expression fell at her words, indicating that it wouldn´t be good. " They can´t find an antidote for him and the poison is spreading fast. We think he hasn´t much time left. Everybody is with him at the moment and tries to say their goodbye without him noticing it".

Maria´s eyes filled with tears at the thought to lose him a second time. She had to get to him, maybe she could help. If not, she was at least with him when he died, like she was on Antar. Just this time it would be worse, because it would be her fault. She was the one stabbing him. " I´ll have to go. Tell the soldiers they have to evacuate the town. I don´t want to lose more innocent then necessary".

" I will do that", Larek watched her disappear behind the heavy door before turning to the bastard killing his brother and then having the nerve to play him. He seemed like a nice guy, but if angered he could rival Rath in his temper. " So now that we´re alone, I will continue what my friend started"

**Hospital wing**

Maria almost ran down the hall, driven by the thought to come too late already. The scene where Rath died under her hands played over and over in her head and everytime she felt the same sadness sweeping over her. Tears were spilling from her eyes when she thought she had to go through that once again. It had been hard to lose her sister and her parents were as good as dead, but Michael would be the final stab into her human heart. She wouldn´t survive another loss in her condition. Wiping her eyes dry, she stopped in front of the door of the room where everybody was waiting for her. Laying her forehead on the cool metal, she tried to get her emotions under control. Breathing deeply in and out she remembered the words her real father had told her before she escaped the castle. " Don´t let anybody see your true feelings, because they could hurt someone else". She would stick to that and if it would kill her. Banning her bad feelings into the back she put on her mask and opened the door. The sight greeting her was worse than she had thought. Michael was half sitting and half lying in a bed, his face white as a ghost, his lips dry and his eyes closed. Tess was at his side holding his hand and trying not to cry, although her red rimmed eyes were telling another story. Kyle was standing behind her and giving her comfort by stroking her back. Isabel was sitting on the ground at the wall and was hiding her face behind her hands while Alex stood in front of her with his wheelchair and rubbed her arms tenderly. As soon as she closed the door they stopped what they were doing and stared at her like they would see her for the first time. Surprised she wondered if she forgot to change back into her human shape, but when she looked down at her body to see if her boobs were still bigger ( a sign that she would be still Marianna ) she saw the reason for the strange glances thrown her way. Her hands as well as her t-shirt were stained with blood. Great she wiped her eyes, she probably had blood in her face and was looking like a crying blessed virgin Mary right now. No wonder they were so stunned.

" How is he?".

Kyle shook his head indicating that it was as bad as it could get. But he didn´t said anything, afraid to upset his girlfriend, who was scared to lose her brother and with that the only family, besides her grandfather she still had. " We´re waiting for Max and Liz. They´re testing the poison and trying to find an antidote".

Maria nodded, only now realizing that two of their friends were gone. Slowly she walked towards Michael and eyed him sadly. She stopped in front of him and the scene was hitting home too much. Choking a sob she turned around and escaped the memories haunting her. Barely making it to the bathroom in the back, she lost the food she had eaten this day. A few seconds she retched everything out that ever passed her gullet until nothing was coming anymore. Then she flushed it down before putting her head down on her arms, which were lying on the toilet seat and trying to find the strength to stand up again. Her body felt so weak all the sudden and everything hurt. Her face was burning up while the rest of her was freezing, her vision was fuzzy and her head pounded painfully. She was afraid to faint on the spot and lose valuable time. She didn´t have the luxury to sleep now, she had to get up because her friends were counting on her. Pushing herself into a standing position she grasped the sink to keep upright. Looking into the mirror before her she startled at the gruesome sight. Her eyes were indeed slightly covered with blood, but it wasn´t that bad. It was probably the white teint, the tired expression and the nasty shape she was in. She was looking like the walking dead right now. Feeling her legs getting stronger she dared to release her hold on the sink and turned the faucet to wash her face and get finally rid of the blood on her hands. Minutes later she didn´t feel any better, but at least she passed as a human being again. Glancing for the last time in the mirror to see if her mask was back on, she emerged from the bathroom and was immediately greeted from Isabel and Alex, both worriedly staring at her.

" Feeling better?".

Maria noticed the words her best friend didn´t dare to speak out. The expression telling her everything she needed to know. They were concerned about her mental condition, if they had to expect a breakdown in the next few hours or not. Swallowing her slight anger at them, she concentrated on the task at hand. " I had worse days".

Isabel stepped closer to her to give her some sign of support. But after the other girl flinched away from her, she stayed where she was. Furthermore she said goodbye and walked back to the others, leaving the friends alone.

" Tell me the truth, do we have to fear losing you, too?", Alex had never thought he would see her that way, so weak and without any hope. Everything that made her Maria seemed to have gone from her. At this place was now a stranger to him, someone he didn´t think he wanted to get to know better.

Maria wasn´t sure where the anger was coming from but she knew she had to let it out before she exploded. " What do you want from me? Huh? I just lost almost all of my family, the man I love is as close as dead, everyone expects me to be the salvation to some kinda war and to top of that I´m pregnant. So excuse me if I´m not in my best shape right now", furiously she pushed past her best friend and stormed out.

She ignored her friends looking at her shocked, having probably heard her outburst and slammed the door shut behind her. As soon as she was alone in the hall she screamed out her pain, her anger and her sorrow. The walls started to shake at that, the ground was moving as well and every light exploded, which put the hall in absolute darkness. Spent she slumped to the floor under her and held her head, trying to prevent herself from losing her mind. She didn´t know which way she had to go, it was like everything pulled her in different directions and wanted a solution for their problems. She was still a child dammit, didn´t they understand that. She was too young to take care of so much people and to make the right decisions. Oh how much she wished her father would be here, he would have the answers or would at least stand at her side to guide her. Chuckling quietly she remembered all the fight she had with him, because he treated her like a damn kid. And now she would be glad to have the chance to tell him that he was right and she still wasn´t mature enough to make her own mistakes. Sadly she would never be able to do that. Everyone was slowly dying around her and it was just a matter of time before the world would follow. This time she wouldn´t fight it, she would yield up to her fate and let everything run its way. Hopefully she would be dead at that moment and didn´t had to witness it. Suddenly she startled when the lights came on again. Confused she glanced at the undamaged illumination and wondered how that was possible, she had destroyed them a few minutes ago.

" What happened here? Did we get attacked?", Corly was running down the hall with a few soldiers at her back. A weapon was in her hand and she was wearing an army uniform, complete with boots. But as soon as she saw her sister sitting on the ground with she knew what had been going on. Stopping in her tracks and almost causing a collision with the men, she gave them a sign to retreat. " Leave us alone. But maybe you could look for Larek".

The soldiers saluted obediently before turning around and walking swiftly away. Maria watched them marching off and then drew her attention to the girl storming towards her. Sighing loudly she knew that she had to explain a few things and she really didn´t have the nerve to do that at the moment. " I´m sorry for destroying the lights, but I swear I would have repaired them. Someday".

Corly shook her head at her sister. Like she cared about the few damaged bulbs, they were replaceable. " That doesn´t matter now. I´m just worried how they got that way".

" If you start asking about my condition I will explode and believe me this time I will take the whole base with me. I´m so sick of people staring at me like I would be cracking every moment. I´m not made out of glass, I won´t break", Maria didn´t feel like listening to someone telling her how concerned they were about her and that she looked like a corpse. She knew those things alone, she didn´t need anyone pointing it out to her.

Corly sat besides her carefully, knowing that the other girl was serious about her statement. The exploded bits of glass were proof enought for that. Without a word she put her right arm around her sister and pulled her closer until her head was lying on her shoulder. Seconds later she heard sobs coming from Maria and her body was shaking slightly. " Shh. I´m here for you. You´re not alone".

Maria was sure that it was just a figure of speech, because she felt alone. Even with all these people around her she never had felt so lonely and so empty. She was never aware how it was to have no motivation anymore or to not care what happened next. But now it was clear to her. " I can´t fight a battle I know I won´t win any longer. It already cost me too much, I can risk losing someone else".

" Don´t you dare give up now!", Corly was enraged hearing those words coming out of the other girls mouth. How could she just sit there and tell her such things? People were expecting her to lead them or at least fight at their side. But if she just stopped, everybody would lose hope and the war would be short and without victory. " If you do that I will personally beat you to a bloody pulp!".

Maria wouldn´t mind that, as long as it was a quick. Maybe she just should walk into the midst of the enemy and they would finally pull her out of her misery. She should have let Nicolai kill her when he was there, it would have spared her enough heartache. " Don´t you understand. I can´t escape this destiny. Everybody will die again. I don´t want to witness it. I´d rather die before".

Corly did something she didn´t even know she had it in her. She slapped her sister with as much force as she could muster. The sound echoed through the hall and startled her. Shocked she noticed the red handprint on the white skin. " Oh god! I´m sorry, I didn´t mean that. I would never hurt you, you know that".

" Thank you. I think I needed that", Maria sensed the panic and the crushing feeling in her chest ebbing away. Maybe all she needed was a really hard kick in the ass to get back on her feet. Kissing Corly on the cheek she jumped up, ready to face the others again. Without waiting any longer she opened the door and stepped into the room.

Her friends stared at her slightly afraid when they realized she was with them again. She couldn´t really blame them, she had reacted like a royal bitch. Slowly she glanced at everybody and hoped they would see how bad she felt for her behaviour. Making eye contact with Alex she tried to tell him with her eyes that she was sorry for blowing up at him earlier. A barely recognizable nod showed that he understood and that he accepted her apology. Smiling a little she went to the bed, where Michael was lying in. Surprised she noticed he was awake and looking at her. Giving his sister a sign he waited until everyone except of course Maria were out of the room before indicating that she should take a seat.

Michael took her hand as soon as she sat and his hand was really hot and his skin dry. He coughed painfully for a few seonds. Then he wet his lips to talk. " Where were you? I was waiting for you".

" I had been taking care of some business. But nothing you have to worry about", Maria slid to the edge of the chair and rested her ellbows on the bed besides him. One hand stretched out and started caressing his cheek. He was still too hot and his breath was unregular and sounded like a steam locomotive.

Michael could barely keep his eyes open, but he refused to go back to sleep, scared he wouldn´t get the chance to say what he wanted to get out before it was too late. Forcing his lids to stay up, he fought a battle he knew he would lose sometime. " I hope you´re being careful. I don´t want you or our children hurt".

Maria finally realized that they both hadn´t even had the time to celebrate her pregnancy. Everything had been going so quick. And with the whole chaos around them, there wasn´t time. She regretted breaking up with him. If she had known what happened she wouldn´t have done it. Unfortunately no one knew the future beforehand and so she only had this last moments with him. " I´m always careful, especially now".

" I´m sorry for leaving you behind again", Michael felt the end was coming closer and closer. The others had said their farewell already, although they tried to make it not so obvious. But when so much people told you they loved you or told you what a great person you are, then you´re on the brink to die.

Maria cupped his face tenderly and turned him in her direction. Instantly she saw the truth in his eyes, time was precious and in their case not enough of it. She wouldn´t just let him die like that again. She would fight tooth and nail to keep him here. " Don´t talk like that. I won´t let you go this time. They have to remove you forcefully from my side".

Michael took one of her hands and kissed the palm. They wasted so much time with fighting temptation and struggling against the inevitable, time they could have spent together. Now it was too late and they had to pay the price. " I wish we would have the chance to go back at the beginning. I would change so much things in my life, like the relationship with my grandfather and with you. I thought I should let you go, give you space then everything would work out. Thinking about it now, I should have chained you to my side and never let go".

" You didn´t do anything wrong. At least with us. I made the mistakes. I had been scared to lose you and wanted to keep you away from me, because I thought you would be safer that way. You see how far we´ve got", Maria felt tears prickling in her eyes. She was stunned that she even had left any fluid in her body. All she did in the last time was crying, but thankfully she had a really good excuse with her pregnancy. Everybody would pin the blame on her hormones.

Michael saw the glitter in her eyes and wanted to say something comforting. But what could he really say? Everything will work out after I´m gone or something like time heals all wounds. Bullshit, that were just empty phrases for people not knowing how it feels to lose someone you love so deeply that the thought he wasn´t with you was unbearable. " We both made mistakes. But the only thing I regret is not seeing our children grow up, being a Dad to them and missing so much of their lifes".

Maria lost the battle with her emotions and fat tear drops slid down her face. She didn´t want to talk about that any longer, the possibility that he would really die was painful. Her heart felt like it was in a iron grip, her stomach was unsettled and her mind screamed for it to be a nightmare. " You will see them growing up and you will be the best Dad a child could wish for and you won´t miss one day of their lifes".

" I wish it would be true, but we both know it´s unrealistic. I will die and nobody can change that", Michael remembered the last minutes of his life as Rath and he was feeling the same way now. There was this calmness again as well as the lightness of his body. It was a wonderful. He wasn´t scared, just sad, because there had been so much he wanted to do in his life. One of them was finally making Maria a respectable woman and asking her father for his permission to give him the hand of his daughter.

Maria knew that, but she didn´t want to accept it, because it would mean she had to look in a future as a single mother. " I just don´t wanna lose you. I love you so much that it rips me apart to be without you".

Michael would always hold this moment in his heart, no matter where he was and where he would be going. This moment nobody could steal him. He swallowed the lump in his throat while he fought tears of his own. He didn´t want to go either, but nobody asked them. When their time was up, the time was up. " I love you, too. I can´t even find words for how much I love you. You´re the best thing that happened to me in both lifes and I would never trade this memories with you for all the money in the world".

" I feel the same way. I wouldn´t trade it either. You were the first man looking behind my beauty and saw the real me and still loved me. I will forever treasure this moments with you until it is my time to go, too. I will never love someone like I love you for the rest of my life", and the last statement was not an exaggeration. Maria couldn´t imagine another man at her side besides Michael. She didn´t know if she wouldn´t compare everyone with him or look for same expressions or gestures.

Michael felt all his troubles and worries dropping down from him. He was ready for his last journey. He just hoped that Maria would be okay without him, that she would move on. Pulling her face down to his he kissed her for the probably last time. He laid all his emotions and passion in this kiss. A minute or so later he released her. " That was to make sure you never forget me".

Maria would have smiled if she wouldn´t know that she would never feel a kiss like this again. How could she let him go now? Nobody could ever replace him, no matter how much time passed. They were destinied, soulmates, partners for life. Nothing would ever feel that way. " I won´t. I promise".

" I´m so tired. Will you stay at my side when I sleep?".

Maria nodded hearbroken, not trusting her voice to get a tone out. Brushing her fingers through his hair she took her free hand to took his. She wanted as much contact with him as she could. Feeling lonely and so absolutely scared she started to sing a lullaby from her mother. For hours she sat at his side and watched him sleep. Once in a while the others would look after her and Michael. But most of the time they both were alone. At one point she began to tell him some funny stories about her childhood. About the day when she tried to jump over a fench and her skirt caught in something and she hung headfirst there while her best friends just laughed at her. Or the time when she had tried to get into the junior football team, but the coach refused because she was a girl and she talked him into the ground. In the end she got a uniform, which she gave back because she didn´t want into the team anymore. Or her first bleeding nose, which she owed to Paul Simmons. He said she was too weak to defend herself. To proof him wrong she had punched him, which in return got her a punch, too. Thankfully she didn´t get expelled from school for that. But from then on, nobody said she was weak, even Paul. At this point Maria noticed Michaels hand getting colder. Eyeing his chest she realized he had stopped breathing. Looking up, she saw his lips had turned blue and he was white as a ghost. A sob escaped her when she detected that he had died during her talking. Laying her head on his chest, she started to cry uncontrolledly. Loud and deep sobs wracking her body, which attracted the attention of the people sitting outside and waiting for news. Instantly everyone stormed into the room and watched her mourn over the loss of her lover. Isabel and Alex went towards her right away to comfort her, although they knew there wouldn´t be such thing. Tess broke down while Kyle tried to support her weight.

" Any news?", Larek stepped into the room, having noticed the audience in front of the door had disappeared. As soon as he saw the many crying people he knew that his friend was dead. Feeling a stab into his heart, he relieved the memory from the day he saw his best friend die. Quickly he turned to Maria, who was clinging to him. " Oh god. I´m too late" and for the first time he cried.

A few seconds later the door opened again and Max came in with Liz at his side. Their faces telling them that they hadn´t succedded. After they noticed the sorrow in this room, they saw that it was to late anyway and began to mourn like everyone else.

Maria meanwhile sensed something changing in her. Something that was dark and dangerous, but it didn´t feel like Marianna. It was different, more older. With a cry she was ripped from Michael´s side and crashed against the wall behind her. Wriggling to get down she saw the others staring at her shocked. Kyle even made an attempt to help her, but Larek held him back. It seemed he know what happened. Maria started to scream, because her entrails felt like they wanted out of her body. A light was blinding her while she tried to stay consciousness, even through the pain was almost too much for her. Then suddenly everything stopped and she dropped down to the ground again. She felt powerful and invincible like she could take the world out of its hinges. And her energy was so high that she could have powered every planet from here to Pluto with it.

" Oh shit", Larek couldn´t believe it. He never had the pleasure to see a true goddess in her real shape. Until now.

TBC


	63. Chapter 63

**Chapter 61 Friend or Foe?**

Kyle looked at the creature standing opposite him. This woman wasn´t his sister any longer and it looked like she wasn´t even human. Although the appearance was normal, at least what one could call normal, but her aura was darker and colder, her eyes white and her hair straight long and black. She was as tall as Larek and he was one of the tallest in this room. The lack of clothes was disturbing, because she just wore a short brown leather skirt and a brown leather corsage with leather boots. Confused he noticed that the woman was stunned and was looking at her hands with wonder. Then she glanced up at the shocked faces staring at her. Immediately she made a threating step towards them, judging after her expression she seemed to be disorientated. Everybody backed away, feeling slightly scared about the person / goddess.

" What is this place? And where am I", her voice was like steel and seemed to cut through the tension filling the room. It sounded so unMaria like.

Larek, who made an impression like he wanted to be somewhere else, just not here, bowed deep down until his nose almost hit the ground. He didn´t know how to behave towards a goddess, but he knew how to act in front of royals, so he thought he went with it. " Your Highness, you´re on Earth. To be exact on a antarian military base".

The strange character raised a well trimmed eyebrow at him, wondering why he called her Highness and bowed before her. She wasn´t a queen. " Stand up, young man. And tell me why I´m here".

Larek arose in a standing position again and was a tiny bit freaked. He knew Maria was in there and she was talking so noble. The last time he heard that he was in the castle of King Salem and listened to him having a conversation with another King from another planet. " We don´t know. Our friend Maria was sitting with us until this white light appeared and blinded us all. The next minute you are standing at her place".

" I see. What happened before I came here", she looked around the frightened people and noticed one of them didn´t seem to be intimidated from her. On the contrary he appeared to be angry and his eyes were glowing dangerously. She stopped her glance on him and stared him down to get to know why he was so furious.

Larek noted that nobody dared to speak, so he had to be the one to carry the conversation. Stepping slightly forward, but still careful in case she would feel threatened. Even if he had the power to space shift, he didn´t want to be cursed for enternity because he offended a goddess. " Maria mourned the death of her lover", he pointed at the place Michael was lying peacefully, like he would be sleeping. " She lost him the second time".

The goddess eyed the boy and for a moment everybody thought a tiny bit of their friend was peaking through. But it went by quickly and she walked towards him. Looking down at the peaceful handsome face, she remembered her lost love and the pain she felt then, well everytime she lost her lover. She knew what it meant to see the man you love die over and over again. It wasn´t something you wished your worst enemy. Stroking Michaels white cheeks, she faced the people. " Her pain called me. There was so much misery, sorrow and a lot of rage".

" What did you do with her? Where is my sister?", Kyle didn´t care if she was god personally, he wanted to have Maria back, not this strange woman. She lost her early cold demeanour, but she was still weird.

The goddess turned to the boy daring to raise his voice in her presence. She had to admire his spunk, he openly showed her his disdain since she had appeared in this room. But now she understood it, after all he was the brother of the girl she possessed right now. " Don´t worry, she´s still there. Just under cover".

Tess left the security of her boyfriends arms and stepped closer to her. Her eyes were still glistening with tears and she was making herself as small as possible. The expression on her face was heart breaking. " Can you bring my brother back?".

" I´m sorry child. I don´t have that power", the goddess laid a hand on the cheek of the young woman in mourning and tried to give her a little comfort. It wasn´t much, but it was all she could offer. She would have been glad to ressurect the dead. But unfortunately she couldn´t do it.

Larek finally realized that they didn´t ask after her name. She could be anyone and until they didn´t know who was standing in front of them, they didn´t know what kind of gift she had. " What should we call you?".

The woman startled, not even noticing that she hadn´t told them her name. Slightly bowing at what her long black hair was falling forward and almost hit the ground. " You have to excuse my manners. My birthname is Nemetona, I´m the gallic goddess of war and goddess of tribe, destinied partner of war god Mars".

" Holy shit! I know you", Isabel hadn´t interest in much things, but she loved to read about heroic woman throughout the time. She found a book about witches, goddesses and pixies. Soon she developed an obssession with war goddesses. There was Macha the irish version, Nemetona the gallic version and Morrigan the keltic version. All three lead wars and they had been messengers for death and destruction. A few of them even were portrait as ravens, demons and other strange creatures.

Nemetona was take aback from the unproper use of speech from the young lady. It wasn´t usual for her to be talked to in that manner. " That is wonderful child. But you don´t have to be so loud about that".

Isabel was in the process to apologize, knowing that it wasn´t healthy to piss off a goddess, especially one who could kill you with the wave of her hand. Unfortunately she was interrupted when Nolak stormed into the room, clearly in a hurry and strangly rattled. " Where´s Maria? Nicolai want´s to speak to her".

" Uh, Maria´s not here right now, but maybe uh he would talk to her", Larek pointed at Nemetona, scratching his eyebrow nervously with the other hand. He didn´t know how his older friend would react to the news.

Nolak eyed the foreign woman standing in the middle of the room. Then his glanced wandered to the person lying on the bed. Shocked he saw Michael and momentarily the picture changed. Now he witnessed Rath dying all over again. Swallowing the lump in his throat he turned to the woman. " Welcome back home goddess Nemetona".

Everybody snapped their heads around and stared stunned at him, wondering from where he knew her name and how he even was aware who she was in the first place. Kyle pulled Tess back at his side, not trusting the older man or even the man he thought was a whacko owning a UFO-Center. Isabel grasped the hand of Alex tightly, hoping that they´re were done with surprises already while Max put himself in front of Liz in an attempt to shield her.

" Thank you, Argon. It´s a pleasure to see you well. Where´s Logas?", Nemetona was glad to see a familiar person, even if he was disguised in human form. But she could read his aura and those eyes she would never forget.

Nolak thought about his partners through all centuries. They went through every epoch together and even survived every disease spreading. But then they were sent to this planet called Antar and they were forced to part ways. While he took the role of a guard of the castle of King Salem, Logas had been head commander of Khivars army. " He died the last time".

Nemetona laid a comforting hand on his shoulder sharing his pain. Logas had been a great man and like a good friend to her. Contrary to Argon he had been kind and emitting warmth. " I´m sorry to hear that".

" He died doing his duty. We know what could happen with performing our job", Nolak lived with the thought that every day could be his last. It was part of his assignment, like a bodyguard was shielding his client from harm and put his body on the line, he was the same. He got older than he thought, he overstepped his 2000 years already. His father hadn´t even reached his 1000 years.

Nemetona nodded, having comprehension for him. They both had been risking their lifes to protect her for thousands of years. They had been at her side when she saw her loved ones die, every one of them. Logas had been the one comforting her, telling her that one day the curse would end and she could die in peace. Maybe then she would be joined with her beloved one again. Shaking her head she remembered that they weren´t here for small talk. " Enough of that. Someone wanted to speak with the girl inside me".

Nolak came into mind why he stormed into this room in the first place. Scratching his head uncomfortable he was berating himself for forgetting his duty for a moment. " Yes. The enemy wants to have a word with Maria and only her. Something about negotiations".

" Then we won´t let him wait", twirling one time around herself, Nemetona changed from the goddess to the human form of Maria. Brushing her hair back in place she looked down at her and was relieved to see the ground wasn´t so high anymore and she was wearing black high boots. " Let´s go".

The others stared with opened mouthes after her. The appearance was their friend, but the soul was still Nemetona. Hopefully Nicolai wouldn´t notice the difference or they were all screwed. Suddenly everyone got in gear and followed her out, fearing she would do something to them if she had to wait to long. Trailing after her, they detected that she was walking different than their friend, with more grace and self confidence. Not that Maria was walking like a boorish, but she hadn´t this commanding presence. Maybe that was part of being a goddess. After a few minutes of trekking down the barely lit halls, she stopped in front of a door that was guarded from two soldiers, both holding big weapons in their arms and stepping aside to let her enter the room behind it. The people at her back were too surprised to utter one word, they just trailed after her inside. Shocked they fell back when they saw what they entered. It was looking like a wide area office, computers and small monitors were lined at one wall with hectic appearing men sitting in front of them. Other men walked around with headsets, talking loudly into their microphones, seemingly upset. Papers laid on the floor or were spit out of printers.

Sean, having missed the goodbye from Michael because someone thought they could use his help, seperated from a few computer geeks and went towards them. His face was a study of misery and fear. Without saying something he grasped Marias wrist and dragged her in the direction of another door.

" What are you doing with me? I can walk alone you know", she didn´t hear the others breath out relieved when they noticed that Nemetona had obviously left the building for a moment. It was probably the presence of her annoying cousin to get the girl back into her own body.

Sean would have gladly started a fight with her, just to get some normalcy back into his out of control life again, but unfortunately he was ordered from some goon threatening his manhood to bring her into the conference room. What he did at the moment. " We don´t have time. I don´t want to lose my dick because you were too slow".

Maria grimaced not even wanting to understand what he was talking about. It was bad enough already to have two more persons in her mind telling her things, one belonging to Marianna and one to Nemetona, that she didn´t need to worry about the sanity of her cousin. " What are you yapping about?".

" Nothing important", Sean stopped in front of the heavy looking door with the strange knob in the form of a snake. " We´re here. Good luck and be careful", then he opened the entrance and pushed her inside before shutting her in the room.

Maria stumbled across the even floor and almost crashed against a chair standing in the middle of the space. Confused she looked around and wondered why her cousin had behaved so strangly. Not that Sean as normal in any kind, but he had been weird even for his standard. Noticing the table where a remote was lying she walked towards it curiously and took it in her hands. A little hesistantly she eyed it, checking it for anything dangerous. Thankfully she couldn´t detect anything and so she pushed the on button. Immediately a huge monitor was flickering on with a familiar face staring back at her. Now she understood what was going on. Angrily she tried to get her emotions under control, thinking about all the pain he inflicted on her and her family. Nearly biting her tongue off, she crossed her arms over her chest, fingernails digging into her flesh. " Hello Nicolai".

Her half brother smiled demonically at her, his grey eyes blazing with something like anticipation. He was sitting in some office behind a desk with interwined fingers. He seemd to be calm and collected, contrary to her. " Hello sister dear. Nice of you to join me in this time, you know mourning the loss of your lover. Such a tragedy. I was really pained to hear about his death, I really did".

" Cut the bull. What do you want? You know, I don´t have all day to talk to losers like you. In case you haven´t noticed we´re at war and I´m planning to kill you", the sweet tone in her voice and the grin on her face didn´t seem to fit the feelings inside her. She had to fight against her instincts to curse his existence and make threats against him. She knew that was what he wanted and she wouldn´t play in his hands.

Nicolai leant back and folded his arms behind his head, obviously comfortable to see her battling with herself. He enjoyed the agony behind her eyes, the rage burning there and threatening to break free from its restrains. He waited until the beast would rear its ugly head. " Well if you want it fast, fine with me. I just wanted to remember you about my offer. You know it still stands. You can join our side and reign at my side".

Maria almost choked on her laughter when she heard that. Who did he think she was? She wasn´t a traitor like him, betraying his beliefs just to have an advantage. She wasn´t like that, if she choose a side, she was standing with it through good and bad times and even the worse time. " Are you kidding me? How stupid do you think I am? No, don´t answer that question. You must think I´m really retarded to ask me this. I won´t and I never will fight side by side with you, against you yes, but never with you".

" Then you will go down like the rest of them. I wanted to give you an opportunity to change history. But you obviously care more about those lowly humans than you do about your family", for the first time his calm expression disappeared and his true face showed up. It was as ugly as his normal face, maybe even a little more.

Maria shook her head. That had been the most honest and the longest conversation she ever had with her half brother. Now she knew that she hadn´t missed anything. He was pretty boring and so full of himself. " You´re wrong. I care about my family, just that these lowly humans are my family. You in return are nothing but a waste of space and air. I will do the universe a favour when I get you out of the way".

Nicolais eyes started to sparkle dangerously and turned to an almost black color. His voice got cold and hard while his demeanour got more threatening. He tried to intimidate her. " We will see who´s the last standing this time. I killed you and your family before. I will do that again. In fact I did it already. By the way, how is your little sister doing? I had so much pleasure with her".

" You bloodsucking son of a bitch. I will kill you this time", Maria sensed so much power in her trying to consume her and take away her humanity, to make her into a monster like him. But she would fight it until her last breath. She had to struggle to keep the energy at bay and keeping her soul unstained from spilled blood.

Nicolai knew she was on the brink to turn evil, just like he wanted. He saw the beast lurking inside her, yanking at its chains and roaring to life. It was almost like an aphrodisiac to him and he felt something stir in him. Something primal and powerful was taking over him and he enjoyed it. " Why so angry? Did I strike a nerve? Then you will love what comes next", snapping his fingers, the picture changed and now the monitor showed two persons lying in white beds, obviously sleeping. By closer looking it was to see that it was Amy and Jim Valenti.

Maria finally lost her battle with her inner demon and let the monster in her free. But to her half brothers surprise, she didn´t turn evil like he expected instead she changed into her antarian form as Marianna. Opening her eyes, he saw they were red and seemed to burn with rage. " You go near my parents and I´ll make you dust, spacedust without blinking".

" Then you should come get me before I can harm them. I will expect you", with those words the monitor turned black.

Maria was left behind seething with fury. She felt different and yet like nothing changed. She had her memory together with that of Marianna and part of Nemetonas. It was like the three persons inside her had melted together and now she was one with them. And the power was more, darker and stronger then everything she had felt before. It was like she was invincible. " Oh you just made a damn mistake", looking at her hands which were crackling with fire she smiled satisfied. Moving out of the room she noticed everyone halting in their work and eyeing her stunned, even scared. " What are you looking at? Keep working, you´re not getting paid for staring", through her heightened emotions computers and other electric equipments blew a fuse, which resulted in chaos and burning stuff. Without paying attention to the hectic people around her, she walked towards the door and almost took it off its hinges without using her hands in the process. From there she marched determinedly in the direction of the elevator.

Larek rubbed his temples, not knowing which way to move first. But noticing that his smaller problem was taken care of, he stormed after his friend or the creature he thought was his friend. He didn´t know what happened with her in that room, but it had obviously brought something out in her that was neither Maria nor Marianna nor Nemetona, it seemed to be all three together. Detecting her near the elevator he started to break out into a run. " Stop! Stop this instant! Maria!"

" No. You can´t stop me anymore", she whirled around angrily, her eyes blazing and her nostrils flaring. Her hands were still flaming a little while her body took a fighting stance with him. Her message was clear and unmistakable. She wouldn´t let anybody hold her back now.

Larek grapsed her shoulders roughly, not caring if he was hurting her or not, but he had to do everything to keep her here. He knew the meeting with her half brother had been anything but enjoyable, but he couldn´t let her go without bringing her to reasons. " What do you wanna do? Hu? Walking straight in their base and blast wildly around?".

Maria pushed him away from her with a strenght that was unnormal, even for her standards. She wouldn´t let herself hinder from doing what she should have done the first time. Not even from her friends. " And? At least someone is doing something. We can´t just sit around and do nothing while people I love die around me, again!".

" Do you listen to yourself? You´ll be dead before you step one foot in there. They will kill you", Larek was desperate and on the brink to start begging her. If he had to he would chain himself at her body to prevent her from leaving.

For a moment the rage in her expression vanished and was replaced with a sad one. " I don´t care about that. I´ve got nothing holding me here anymore".

Suddenly Kyle, finally arriving with the others trailing after him, stepped forward. He had heard the last part and it made him mad. Mad that she was so indifferent to leave this world and leave him. " What about me? Or our parents and your friends? Your children? We all need you and you need us".

" I´m sorry, but I can´t. I love you all, but this thing is something I have to do alone", turning around again she walked to the elevator and put her hand at the panel. Concentrating hard on the wires she melted a few together and destroyed their only exit. Noticing the heavy door opening and closing over and over again, she knew that she had succeeded.

Nolak realized her intention, namely trapping them inside and keeping them safe. Immediately he wondered how she wanted to disappear if the only way out of this base was damaged. Just like she had read his thoughts she turned into flames. As soon as the smoke was gone, they realized that so was she.

Looking at the spot his sister just vacated and torn between being angry at her or bore a hole through all the earth to kick her ass, he faced Brody. " Do something. Go after her. Do your Jeannie thing or wiggle your nose".

" I can´t. This base is protected. Nothing alien comes in and unfortunately nothing alien can go out without using the elevator", Larek had to think quickly about something or this had been the last time he saw Maria alive. Straining his brain to work faster than usual, he exchanged a worried glance with Nolak, who he thought he knew. There was something going on not even he knew what it was.

**Meanwhile somewhere else**

Marianna reappeared in the middle of a hospital room, to be exact that of her parents. Gripping her head she tried to stop the spinning. It had been a long time that she travelled that way, hundreds of years actually. She had to get used to it again. Waiting until the dizziness went away she glanced around, searching for guards her half brother had put here, because he wouldn´t dare to be here where he was in disadvantage. But she knew he wasn´t someone playing with nothing, he had good cards or so he thought. He didn´t knew that she took a peak into them and was now one step ahead of him. Closing her eyes she tried to feel them through their dark auras. Within seconds she had them pinpointed. It were two and they were standing in front of the door, guarding it and waiting for her. They had probably thougth she would come from the entrance. Fools. Shaking her head she walked towards the hospital beds and stopped at the foot of it, eyeing the persons lying there. They both were appearing like they would be sleeping. Her mother was healing better than her father, who was bandaged from the waist upwards. Even the face was covered. Stepping closer to him she took his hand.

" I know you can´t hear me at the moment, but I just want to thank you for everything you´ve done to me, even if I fought you because of a few decision. I know you just wanted what was best for me and I understand it now. You were the best father a girl could hope for. I love you and I hope one day you will grasp why I did what I did", kissing his cheeks softly, she was sending him a few of her healing powers. Maybe he was strong enough to use it. She didn´t have time to heal him properly. Turning to the other side she did the same with her mother while telling her how much she loved her and appreciate everything done for her. Then she put her hands on both her parents before letting them disappear and keeping her fingers crossed that they arrived at the base without any harm. She didn´t want them out in the open and without protection.

She pondered if she should go outside and let those two idiots known that she was there without them noticing it. But she decided against it, she would save her glee for someone else. Snapping her finger she was gone again with no trace that she ever was here in the first place. Seconds later she was standing in the basement of her home, exactly in front of the gun locker. Very few of the citizen of Roswell knew that her father wasn´t just the Sheriff, but he was a really good hunter, too. He and Kyle often spent vacations at their small cottage in the middle of Frazier Woods, shooting wild animals or at least trying to, because they never hit something. Had probably to do with the fact that they both loved animals and couldn´t harm them. Unless they were annoying like insects and spiders, edible like cows, pigs, turkeys, fishes or chickens or at least dangerous to them. Eying the many weapons hanging at the rack or standing in their frames, she bypassed them. She wouldn´t need firepower, she had enough of her own. No she needed something better. Smiling at the sight of the ammunition of her fathers old winchester, she took a handful of the 308 Winchester 168 Grain Barns triple shock bullets, which could disable a outgrown elephant and placed them carefully in the pockets of her beige khaki pants. Snapping her finger again she felt the familiar feeling pulling her in the direction of Nicolai. Holding onto her rage, she landed on a sandy ground with her feet. Slightly swaying from the hard impact she glanced around to see where she was. Confused she noticed the old shanties standing side by side with the windows dirty and holes in a few spots. The wind was blowing sand through the air and the silence was eerie, almost scary. It seemed like she was in a western town, just without the cowboys, barmaids, easy ladies and the native americans. It felt like a ghost town and she was the only one here. But she knew that her half brother was near, because she could sense his presence. It was cold and dangerous. He couldn´t be too far from her now. Maybe she should draw him out of his hiding place. It wasn´t nice to let his guest wait so long. Starting her trek to the Crawford mine, she burned down every building besides her with a flick of her wrist.

" Come out Nicolai. I know you´re here", she screamed, already knowing it wasn´t necessary. He was already aware of her. Just waiting for the right moment to appear. " Come on out. I´m waiting for you. It´s pretty rude to keep me waiting".

Suddenly a small gust seized her from behind and she knew that she wasn´t so alone any longer. Putting on her poker face she turned around slowly and was stunned for a moment to see that not just Nicolai was there, but Lykus and Rath. " You called?".

Marianna tried to school her features in not giving away her surprise about the added visitors. She was sure that she could count on Lykus to be on her side, which was better than nothing. Rath, she didn´t trust much more than she did her half brother. He was the one behind killing her family and he would pay just as everybody responsible for her pain. " I didn´t know this is a party. If I had known I would have brought a few friends along".

" Oh I forgot how funny you can be in a crisis. I will miss your spunk when you´re dead", Nicolai nodded with his head at his two companions, giving them a sign to leave them alone.

Marianna kept her half brother in her sight and missed the encouraging glances from Lykus and Rath thrown her way. She just concentrated on the bastard in front of her, waiting to ram his pathetic excuse for a body into the ground so that he would come out at the other side of the world. " Are you sure you want to fight me? I mean you hadn´t been the strongest in hand to hand combat. Not even with your puny powers".

Nicolais smile threw her for a couple of seconds. She had expected an angry reply or even an attack. But not this amusement, like this was a joke and she was the only one not getting it. " So that´s the reason why you had to change back into your old form? Because I´m so weak compared to you".

" No. I thought it was more familiar, after all Maria has nothing to do with you, besides her seething hatred against you. Besides the fight is between us, nobody else", she pointed with her head to the two persons standing in the vacant space between two cottages, waiting to ambush her any moment, although she knew that just one would dare to interfere and attack her openly.

Nicolai turned his attention on his buddies he brought with him. He wouldn´t need their help, especially in the great plan he had. They were both replaceable and most likely dead when he wouldn´t need them anymore. " I wanted to do you a favour. How many people can say they died with the two loves of their lifes at their sides? Besides I wanted to give Lykus the opportunity to come to your rescue if something should go wrong".

Marianna steeled her expression to not give away that she was surprised about him finding out that one of them was playing for their side now. One wrong twitching in her face and he knew that he had her dead on. She couldn´t bring Lykus into this situation, even if she hadn´t exactly fuzzy feelings for him. " Why should he do that? Come on, he already abandoned me before I went to the enemy. Like he would risk his life for me".

" Don´t be so sure about that. I looked into his head and I found out a few interesting details. You wanna hear it?", Nicolai knew that his former best friend was fighting on the other side, besides his precious Marianna. That his feeling of guilt was plaquing him since he killed her and he offered his help to Nolak and his stupid side kick Larek.

Marianna was tempted to take a peek at Lykus. But she knew that she just would reveal that he was telling the truth about them. Great now she had to look after her former fiance, too. " Are we fighting today or are you trying to talk me to death with your boring voice? Because if the last is true I´ll come back another time. Sometime when you´re not in the mood to bend my ear".

Nicolai raised his left eyebrow while he eyed her face for any indication that she was trying to hide something. But he couldn´t see anything, not one nervous tic or blinking. She either was a good liar or she really had no idea what he was talking about. Shrugging his shoulders he would give her what she wanted. Shoothing his arm forward quickly, he let out a blast, which hit his half sister square in the chest. But unfortunately she was still standing without even swaying slightly.

" Is that all you got? I think you are getting old", she wiped the spot where the blast made an impact. Strangly it hadn´t hurt like it should have. It was just a tad bit uncomfortable for a second, but otherwise nothing. No blood, no pain and no injury. Maybe it was part of being a goddess. Grinning at her opponent she lifted her hand where a small fireball was hovering over her palm. Throwing it at him she was delighted to see him jumping aside scared.

Nicolai wondered how she did that, just fending off the blow like it was nothing without even doing anything. Had she gotten more powers and he didn´t know it? Had she sent some machine at her place? Or had he really lost his touch? Shaking his hands he felt the energy quietly humming inside him, strong as ever. No it wasn´t him. Looking up at her, he noticed for the first time it was not his half sister glaring back at him. The eyes weren´t black or even green, they were red. Her stance was more agressive and deadly. Definitely not her. " What are you?".

Marianna groaned annoyed. Now he wanted to talk? They were fighting for heavens sake and not gossiping. If she would have wanted a conversation, she would have stayed at the base and done it with Liz, Isabel or even Tess. " You´re worse than a girl. If you don´t wanna fight then tell me so".

" Fine, we´re done talking", Nicolai immediately shot another blast in her direction, this time he put more force behind it. With small satisfaction he saw her stumble backwards a few steps before she caught herself again.

Marianna rolled her eyes at him, okay that had been a little more painful, but still not dangerously or even close to it. It had felt like a hard shove from someone. Cracking her fingers she stretched both arms out and aimed her hands palm towards him. Instantly a a white light came out of them and hit Nicolai head on with the force of a truck. With a loud cry he flew through the air and landed ruggedly on the dusty ground and created a thick cloud of dust around him. She waited until her vision cleared and startled when she realized that he wasn´t there anymore. Confused she searched for him with her eyes. After a few seconds she detected him and knew it was too late. Worriedly she closed her eyes when the blast hit her and she was flung towards one of the shabby looking shack. Pain shoot through her body due to the crash with the old wood, which caved in as soon as she clashed against it. Falling on the floor in midst all the dirt, the splinters and the rusted nails, Marianna felt like her lungs had said goodbye to her while the rest of her anatomie seemed to be awol. Every bone was probably broken or on the verge of it. Trying to breath slowly she finally opened her eyes. The first thing greeting her was a missing wall. Turning her head to the side she jumped surprised, because millimeters from her head was sticking an old pickaxe. A little to the right and she would have impaled her brain on it. Shuddering at the mental picture, she suddenly heard foot steps nearing her. Acting like she was unconscious, she stayed motionless and waited for her half brother to bent over her. The moment she smelled his foul breath waving in her face, she kicked out with her left leg and hauled his scrawny ass down on the floor besides her. While he still reeled from the surprising assault she rolled around and sat herself on him quickly. Pinning his hands at either side of his head, she smiled happily.

" Didn´t expect that coming, did you?".

Nicolai had to admit, he was pretty impressed about her fast attack. But she wasn´t so good like she thought she was. Besides if he wouldn´t enjoy her position so much, he would have already blasted her off him. She had found the exact spot and she was rubbing it with her movement and it put a grin on his face. " Do it faster and maybe a little bit harder".

Marianna stopped struggling and stared at him with bewilderment. What did the troll talk about? Faster and harder? All at once she realized what he meant with his comments and jumped off him, wiping at her clothes to get rid of the dirty feeling. He was sick, just sick. " You´re disgusting! Ewwww. I think I have to spew".

" Why you´re making such a fuss? It´s nothing unusual when a man responds to a woman", Nicolai stood up from the ground and brushed off the dust from him while his glance swept over her, clearly checking her out. It had been such a shame that she hadn´t shown any interest in him. Maybe then everything would have went different.

Mariannas eyes widened and for a moment it looked like she wanted to say something. But nothing wanted to come out of her mouth, she just opened and closed it like a fish. Words were escaping her and even if, she didn´t know what could really describe the feeling she had right now. After a few seconds she could compose herself so that she at least could bring something out. " It is, when those people are related to each other. We have the same mother that means it´s forbidden. That would be like incest".

Nicolai exploded at that, well metaphorically speaking. His face darkened together with his eyes. His expression got grim and his jaw worked tightly under his skin. " Don´t you think I know that. Can you imagine how it was for me to lust after my sister? If anybody knew how badly I wanted you, father would have killed me. It would have broken our mothers heart if she had discovered the many times I observed you while you dressed or the fantasies I had when I slept with other girls, picturing them with your face".

" Stop. Don´t tell me that, I don´t want to hear it", Marianna covered her ears with her hands and shook her head in denial. She could still pretend to have misheared him. He didn´t just confess that he had the hots for her. No, that was her imagination playing tricks on her.

Nicolai stormed towards her and grasped her arms, getting her hands away from her head. He wouldn´t hurt her, not yet at least. He needed to get it all out before he would end it forever. It had been a long time that he kept all this inside with nobody to confide in. " No, you will listen to me. You never noticed anything, because you were so wrapped up in your life with Hewlik and Lykus and Marius that you not once noted my feelings for you. That I loved you like anyone else, maybe even more. But at the same time I hated you more than anyone else. You had been the only girl I ever wanted and could never have".

Marianna tried to wiggle her way out of his grasp. But he held on tightly onto her almost crushing her bones in the process. She just wanted to run away and be as far away from him as she could. He seemed to have lost his mind and was talking crazy. He wasn´t himself. " That´s a trick. You try to weaken me or distract me before you kill me".

" I´m telling the truth. Wait let me do something", Nicolai opened the siblings link they still had, which neither had used since they started talking as children. It was a little difficult at first because Marianna was fighting him all the way. But when he shared his memory with her, she broke it off. He showed her the quiet moments when he watched her talking animatedly with Lykus or Marius, the open adoration from both just to be seen with her. The wish to be in their shoes and just have her one time smiling at him for a second. The sleepless nights turning in his bed, hoping to get over the attraction towards her, fighting against his own desires or using some mindless, faceless girls. The few times he sneaked in her room to eye her sleeping peacefully with her sword at her side, hovering his hands over her beautiful face, tempted to touch her flawless skin. The many angry conversation with the mirror, being afraid that somebody could notice anything and to be disgusted with himself. It almost drove him over the edge and he hardened his heart against her, starting to plan to get her out of the way permanently. If he couldn´t have her, nobody could. And yet he always made a retreat, not having the heart to kill her.

Marianna managed at last to release herself from her half brother. Feeling slightly out of it, she stepped back all the while staring shocked at him. She couldn´t believe it, it was worse than she thought and she just couldn´t believe it. Now finally she knew the reason why he hated her so much, but she wished she wouldn´t know it. " Why did you have to show me that?".

Nicolai noticed the mixed emotions crossing her face and he couldn´t blame her. He just came and dropped this bomb on her while she still mourned the death of her lover. It was hard he knew, but it had been harder to hide this feelings all those years. " Because I wanted you to know the truth. Why I got the way I am today. Making peace with you and myself before everything is taking its end".

" I think that was all part of your evil plan", Marianna stumbled over the debris of the old cottage towards the outside. She wanted to be as far as she could from him. He had obviously lost his mind and was talking rubbish. But unfortuntately she forgot that he wasn´t alone and as soon as she stepped into the fresh air two arms shoot forward and gripped her shoulders. Startled she looked into the concerned eyes of Lykus. " He just told me that...he... I think I´m going to faint".

Lykus shook her roughly and made her head bob from one side to the other. " Get yourself together. You can faint when this is all over. But until then you will be brave and strong".

Marianna glanced briefly at him and realized his angry expression. Then she stared deep in his eyes and noticed that not her former fiance was looking back at her, but someone else. Someone she almost had forgotten, because he had kept himself in the background. Before she however voice her thoughts something touched the back of her head and darkness was engulfing her mind.

**Base**

Larek put his hand on the spot where Maria had done it. Concentrating for a moments he found the damage. Unfortunately he didn´t understand one bit about electronic or wires or something in that departement and he knew that he just would make it worse when he tried to repair it. He turned to the expectant faces waiting for his verdict and he was sure that nobody would love what he had to say. " Has someone knowledge about electronic or at least technic?".

Some groans were the answer to his questions. Then Kyle stepped away from his friends and faced Nolak, the only one in this building knowing what was going on at the moment. " Follow her, get her back".

" I can´t. I don´t have the power to orb myself away. I´m no god, I´m just a guardian".

Kyle seized the older mans collar and lifted him a little of the ground, much to the surprise of the others, but obviously the fear of losing his sister provided him with superhuman strenght. Or he shared the powers of Maria with their twin link. " I don´t care. My sister is out there and probably in the process to do something stupid and I´m stuck here with all this aliens with this great powers, who are unable to do anything".

Tess laid a hand on her boyfriends shoulder to calm him down. Threatening and cursing wasn´t helping them at the moment. " Kyle don´t. I know you´re worried, we´re worried, too. But getting violent isn´t the answer".

" I know that. But I can´t just wait for them to decide on something while Maria is in trouble and needs my help. You know how it feels to lose your twin, don´t let the same happen to me", Kyle hated to bring Michael into the play, especially after it wasn´t even half an hour when he passed away. However he couldn´t think clearly right now and the feelings from his bond with his sister wasn´t making it easier for him.

Tears were filling Tess eyes when she thought about her brother, lying alone in this cold room. He was never coming back and it seemed to finally hit her. It was the worse feeling in the world and she wouldn´t wish it on Kyle, too. He had already lost a sister and probably his parents by now, she didn´t want to add Maria to the list. " We´ll do something. All of us, but now let go of Nolak".

Kyle dropped the other man back on the ground immediately and went to his girlfriends side to wrap his arms around her. She was right. They were a group and they would work together. Too bad that Maria forgot that information. " What now?".

" Larek, Nolak. We´ve got a problem", a young soldier was fastly running in their direction with a black object in his hand. He almost tripped over a bump in the way, but caught himself in the nick of time. When he arrived at the stunned looking males, he shoved the black thing in Lareks hands before sitting down and breathing properly.

Everyone gathered around to see what that strange gadget was. Surprised they recognized it was a portable TV set. Looking closer they saw something that was shocking for all of them. There was Maria fighting with Nicolai in the middle of an old road. Suddenly a young woman with dark short hair and brown eyes dressed in a black blazer stepped into the picture. The right hand was holding a microphone. Larek turned up the volume to hear what the Lady had to say.

" _Ladies and Gentlemen. We´re just getting witnesses of something spectacular. While my team and I were shooting pictures for our documentarfilm about abandoned towns from the time of the gold fever in america, we filmed this scene happening a few feet away from us"._

The image changed and now Maria blasted Nicolai off of his feet with a huge energy ball. Seconds later she was thrown in the air and broke through a wall of an old shack. At that the reporter was coming back into the picture again.

" _It seems like either we´re seeing the first real life superheros or the aliens have finally landed on earth and were now fighting their battles on our planet. Either way, we are the first to have it on film. We´re trying to get closer to see what is going on, maybe we manage to listen to them and find out what their deal is"._

Suddenly a scream was heard and the camera fell to the ground. The last picture they saw was Nicolai, Rath and Lykus dragging a motionless Maria away before everything turned black. Larek put the tv out and threw it on the wall, where it shattered in thousand pieces while the others stared with shocked expressions at him, already mulling over what they should do with their newest problem.

TBC


	64. Chapter 64

**Chapter 62 The end is near**

Larek sat after his little outburst at a wall with his hands hiding his face and his legs pressed at his body. He regretted destroying the small tv, but it had felt good, at least for a few minutes. Now he wondered how they could prevent the world from knowing their secret. He wished he would have never agreed to take this challenge, although it had been nice to see his former friends again. But at this moment right now, he wanted to be someone else on some other planet, hopefully with no problems, well not so big problems. He felt the glances of the people around him, waiting for an order or some solution to the current situation. Truthfully he had no idea what they should do or what they could do at all. It had been a live broadcasting and probably thousands if not more had been watching it. Other news station and news programms would be also showing the scene soon and more people would have proof for aliens. They had managed to avoid the FBI with a little bit of help from the Sheriff, but now they would know the truth. They couldn´t let that happen. Not just a few lifes were on the line, it were much much more. Too many to count. Dropping his hands Larek looked up at the frightened faces. Nolak was missing from the group, apparently already doing something. Breathing out relieved he stood up, feeling some of the pressure easing off of his back.

" Feeling better or you want something different to throw?", Max tried to banish the tension hanging thickly in the air. All right, it didn´t look too good for them at the moment. But that didn´t mean they couldn´t change it. They were all smart and could think about some plan for their problem.

Larek nodded his head, avoiding eye contact with everyone. He usually didn´t lose his temper, that had been more Rath terrain. But it was either destroying something or exploding, which he would have prefered, at least then he could have spared himself the pity glances. " It´s over. I just needed to relieve some testosterone".

Max looked at him with sympathy, having felt the same. It was like everything was falling apart around them and nobody could do to stop it. What they needed was someone that had the strength and the stubbornness to stand up against Marianna. Unfortunately the only one capable of that was dead and the other was presently on the dark side. " Good, because we need you thinking clearly now and not losing your cool. We have to stop the broadcasting stations to transmit the filming material around the world. But how can we do that?".

" Larek! Come quick. Something unbelievable happened", one of the doctors from sick bay was coming towards them all. His face was showing his surprise evidently. But thankfully it didn´t look like it would be bad news this time.

Larek turned to the excited man, wondering what went wrong. He was glad that he had let his frustration already out. " What? Jerry Springer inviting Maria to his show?"

The doctor frowned at that comment. He wasn´t understanding the joke and he didn´t want to. Besides he wasn´t here to listen Larek saying stupid things, he had more important news. Finally something joyful. " No. A few moments ago two person had been transfered into one of our rooms".

" But I thought nothing alien could come in?", Kyle was confused. Didn´t Larek tell him that this base was protected from intrution from the outside? If that wasn´t the case anymore, maybe they could sent someone to get Maria back without using the elevator.

Larek thought the same thing until a few seconds ago. Something must have happened to the protective shield Nolak had built on the base and the area around it. Facing the doctor he asked the question everyone wanted to know. " Who are this persons?".

The doctor glanced quickly at the athletic young man before turning his attention back to the man in front of him. " The Sheriff and his wife".

" My parents are here? How are they? How did they come here?", Kyle didn´t even wait for an answer. Fastly he stormed into the direction of the hospital wing of the base without looking after the others. He didn´t care about their bad situation anymore, he had to see his parents and make sure that they were at one piece.

Tess glanced at the stunned faces of her friends before following her boyfriend, having the need to see for herself that this really happened. Seconds later the whole group got in gear and trailed after the two, led in front from Liz and Max. Isabel and Larek built the end. Alex was still in sick bay, because a doctor wanted to see after his leg and maybe heal it, so that he could walk again, at least quicker than originally intended. He was even the first noticing the many people storming in the room and staring unbelievable at Jim and Amy lying peacefully on the cots. He hadn´t really grasped the thought that they were here and the way they got here. They just appeared out of nowhere, puff and voila. It was like magic. The doctor treating him had immediately dropped what he was doing and went to his new patients. Shocked he checked them for any side effect of being orbed or how they made it through the tight security from Nolak. Thankfully they both had survived without any mutations or new injuries so far.

Kyle´s shock eased away at the picture from his parents and he made his way at their side. Touching their arms he felt tears prick his eyes. They were real and they were here with him. " Are they alright?".

" Yes. Unless you count the wounds they had before they appeared", Alex stood up from his wheelchair, sighing with relief when he noticed his feet carrying his weight and the nonexistent pain in his leg. Finally he wasn´t trapped in this rolling thing anymore.

Isabel smiled at the picture and threw her arms around him, happy that he was better. Although she liked to wheel him around and take care of him. But she knew the day would happen when he could walk on his own feet again, even though she would have liked it not so early. " I´m glad to see that you´re better".

Alex grinned joyful, feeling better with the arms of the most beautiful woman around him. If she would react everytime he was over an injury he would start risking his bones with dangerous things. Maybe he would begin with extreme skateboarding. " Yeah well I´ve got good genes", he caught the worried expression of his friends over the shoulder of his girlfriend and wondered if it was the special appearance of Maria on tv that put the frowns on their faces. " So you heard about the tv performance, too?".

" Heard? We saw it with our own eyes", Larek had thought about what they could do to stop the people from knowing about them the whole time the two lovers celebrated the healed wound. It had been luck that they made it this far without getting discovered, but now that a war was coming it was dangerous for every person curious enough to see real breathing aliens. They knew what would happen if it would leak that the martians had landed on earth. Most of the people would be afraid and the rest would start to plan travels to Roswell.

Alex bit his lip, clearly as worried as everybody else. This could bring more trouble than it was worth. Wrapping his right arm around the middle of Isabel he faced the others. " Do you have a camera?".

Larek stared at him with disbelieve, already thinking about letting the boy check for any head injuries. Why did he need a camera? And what did he want to do with it? Unbelievable, everybody around him was slowly losing their minds. Was someone sane in this room? " Yeah. But I don´t know what you want with it".

" Is there a room we can change into a tv studio, in say like two minutes?", Alex went through a mental checklist. He would need a chair, a table, someone holding the camera, light, a background, papers and a computer with a Internet connection. Then they could put away the most obvious problem within the next hour.

Larek finally realized what his smart friend meant. They would make a counter report and send it on air to prevent the scene from diffusing. Brilliant idea and feasible. But one thing was unclear. " How do you want to get it out?".

Alex raised an eyebrow at the older man like he wanted to say what a dumb question that was. " Hey, your talking to geek boy. I just need a computer with internet and we can hack into every processor from every tv station in america".

" Then don´t waste more time, let´s go", Larek grasped the young boy´s arm and dragged him out. They were closely followed from Isabel, Max and Liz.

Kyle hadn´t even noticed the conversation, he was sitting in the middle of the cots where his parents were lying. He had got a chair and placed him there. His head was turning from one side to the other, always watching for some kinda change. For the first time since everything happened, he felt the grief deeply. The weight of his pain was too hard for him to bear anymore and he started to cry bitterly. Strong sobs wracking his body and big fat drops falling from his eyes. Immediately Tess stepped at his side and embraced him. Shedding tears on her own she felt his arms squeezing her thightly and his face hiding at her belly. Together they let out the sorrow for the last two days and for the next days to come.

**Copper Summit**

Marianna came around to voices talking heatedly in front of her. At first she thought she was sleeping and this was some dream plane. But then she felt the slight throbbing on her head and the blurry vision combined with a sick feeling in her stomach. Groaning quietly she opened her eyes and the first thing leaping in her eyes were the big windows streaming a whole lot of sunshine through it. Dropping her sight she waited until her eyes had fully adjusted to the brightness before continueing to discover where she was. Looking to her right she saw a large gateway with what appeared to be a heavy lock in front of it. Not finding anything helping her she glanced at her left and noticed chains with hooks hanging from the high ceiling, a anvil standing under them and a big oven at the back. She seemed to be in the workplace of a blacksmith. Trying to turn her body, she finally recognized that her hands were immobile. Gazing along her right arm she found both of them tied over her head with black handcuffs attached on the wall behind her. Jarring at them she made an attempt to free herself. Unfortunately the chains weren´t exactly soundless and so she attracted the attention of the three males in the room with her. Lykus stepped away from his two companions and stopped close before her face, almost touching his nose with hers.

" Glad you could finally find the time to join us".

Marianna stared with pure hate at him, having waited so long for this moment. Even with her hands kept prisoner she was sure that she could take him, just with the fury inside her body. Finally she was eye to eye with her greatest enemy, the man killing everything that meant something to her. Khivar, albeit not in his own body. " I could say the same about you. I was already disappointed to hear that you just sent this small troll to kill me. I have to say I had expected more from you".

Khivar grinned at her, amused about her attempt to be brave. Stroking her cheek, he remembered the way her mother had begged for her life before he had killed her. The satisfying feeling when he saw her eyes losing this sparkle with every drop of blood from her headwound. " I forgot how charming you can be. Where did you learn such language?".

" Don´t you dare act like you had known me! You ignored me for all my life and wouldn´t have even flinched when I would have killed all your men in a battle", Marianna felt her past self pushing her way through the mist in her mind and waiting for the right point to attack. There was so much rage inside her that it was wonder that the huge hall was still standing and not already blasted into pieces.

Khivar´s eyes turned to black at the obvious complain. How could he acknowledge her when he knew that she wasn´t his? To stand the sight of something that wasn´t from his blood with so much power and leadership? To see the betrayal of his wife everyday, even through he never loved her. But she had been his and he didn´t share, with no one. " Do you want to start listing my faults or are you interested to hear why I´m here?".

Marianna raised a questionally eyebrow at the man. He wanted to talk? To her? What was going on? Something smelled fishy here. " I´m listening, as you can see I´m not going anywhere soon", to get her point across she shook her bound wrist.

" Good girl, at least I taught you something", he stepped away from her but careful to always have her in sight. As much as he didn´t want to admit, she was stronger than he thought and more deadly than she looked. He wouldn´t make the mistake to underestimate her, especially now. " Did you know that the Earth has much more to offer than Antar? It´s bigger, the people are vulnerable and much more fun to kill. Except for their politics, which I find very disturbing, I like this planet".

Marianna wasn´t sure she could follow his train of thoughts. Well she wasn´t so experienced with crazy talk and arrogant bastards, so it wasn´t such a surprise there. Maybe if she hadn´t slept in the class about cold hearted, mindless, pitful men trying to take over the world, she would have known what he was talking about. " You forgot the smog, the many crimes, the meaningless wars, children shooting children, fathers touching their daughters, mothers killing their children and stupid politicians trying to rule the country with empty phrases".

Khivar grinned at the picture she was showing him. If she was trying to scare him away she was not so good at it. The things she said was doing the exact opposite, it was making him more interested in this planet where people were destroying each other on a daily basis. Why should he do the damage when there was enough creature doing the dirty work for him? " That´s even better. I can watch everyone killing each other without lifting a finger and enjoy the show. This world has so much potential, it just needs a good leader".

" And you think you´re the right one for the job?", Marianna bit her lip to stop herself from breaking out in loud laughter. She didn´t want to be so cruel to him, but the thought alone that he wanted to take over the Earth was hilarious. Mankind wasn´t made for slavery or to be wiped out. They would fight back with their weapons until their last breath. Khivar should have seen Independence Day, that would save him all the trouble later. " I hate to break it to you, but you will never rule this planet. Even if you will kill me and every antarian men at our base, these humans are more tough than they appear and some of them don´t even have fear in their bodies. They won´t go down without a hard battle".

Khivar pinched her cheek, valuing her for the way she thought ahead. Too bad that it wouldn´t be of use for her. It was such a shame that she had been always such a headstrong young woman, not taking orders and being independent. " I already considered that in my plans. But thanks for reminding me".

Marianna snapped her head away from his slimey fingers. She was worried about all the people dying if he was really putting his plan in action. The children, the animals, the buildings, the art, everything would be just gone. No, she wouldn´t let that happen. " I will stop you. This time you die through my hands".

" I hate to tell you that, but you won´t be alive that long", Khivar pushed his hands in the back of his jeans and pulled something out. It was an old dagger with a hand-carved handle. The wood was from the strongest tree on Antar. On it were the symbols of his kingdom. The scorpion. The sharp blade was reflecting the sun shining on it. " Any last words you want to share with us?".

Marianna turned her glance to the right and saw Nicolai and Rath standing side by side in front of the gateway. Both appeared to be emotionless. But by closer inspecting she noticed that they seemed to be on alert and ready to jump into action. Rath even blinked at her. Confused she faced Khivar again. " Yeah. Fu you, you son of a bitch".

Khivar knew that she would say something like that. Smiling big he striked out with his arm and took all of his strenght to plunge the dagger into the body of this traitor. But suddenly a white light was blinding him and he stabbed aimless forward. With satisfaction he felt a resistance and something wet splattering on his hand. A muffled cry of pain was heard. Joyful he looked up when the light disappeared. Shocked he saw in the dying eyes of his son. Whirling around he detected Marianna standing besides Rath, the same spot where Nicolai had been before. " I was right. You had been the goddess, not your mother".

" That´s the only thing in your mind right now? You just killed your own son!", unbelievable. It wasn´t just her he had dismissed from the start, it had been her half brother, too. No wonder Nicolai had been working against his father.

Khivar gazed at his son hanging lifeless in the handcuffs, blood dripping out of his mouth. For a moment he felt something close to sorrow. But it was gone as soon as it came and he drew his attention to girl he thought had been his daughter. " It´s no great loss. He was planning something against me anyhow. He would have died either way".

Marianna shook her head disgusted at the bastard. She wondered now why she had tried to get his approval so much. He obviously wasn´t worth it. He hadn´t even so much heart to mourn the death of his own flesh and blood. " Oh my god! You really are a ruthless, cold hearted jackass".

" Someone has to be the bad guy, don´t you think?", Khivar had no problem with being this person. Besides he didn´t know what should be so great about being nice. The good people always got the shit end of the stick while the evil ones walked through life without a care.

Marianna didn´t know why she was still standing there and listened to the bullshit he was sprouting. She should put a stop to her misery and kill him. After all he was the one behind the death of her mother, her second family and her lover. He made her life living hell and he didn´t even care about it. " Yeah. But the bad guys never win. The heros always save the day".

Khivar thought about the prophecy the old witch had told him. Someone close to him born with the strength of a goddess would be his downfall. He had been so sure that it was his wife, but now he knew that it had been Marianna all along and he wondered if this was his end. " But I´m not really here, just in this shell of your former fiance. You try to kill me and you kill him while I´m on my way back home planning the armaggedon of this planet".

" Then I suggest you get your ugly ass here and fight me like a real man or are you too chicken to face me?", Marianna didn´t mind losing Lykus, she knew that sacrifices had to be made in a war and he was one of the few people she could live without. But the thought that she wouldn´t even kill the one she was trying to wasn´t worth it.

Khivar wasn´t too happy about the insult and stretched his arm out. Instead of a blast like Marianna expected a hammer was flying towards her. Before she could react it hit her directly on her forehead and knocked her off of her feet. " Okay whatever you want. Tomorrow at noon in the desert. You, me and our men".

When Marianna stood up from the ground, holding a hand on the spot the tool had made impact, she immediately noticed Lykus lying dazed on the floor, blinking in confusion at her before looking around. It seemed like Khivar had finally disappeared. Walking towards the fallen man she offered him her hand and helped him stand. " Are you okay?".

" Yeah. I think. What happened? Why am I here?", Lykus couldn´t remember anything after he left the base in Roswell. One minute he went to his car and the next absolute nothing. Strange, it was like he lost his memory for a while.

Marianna glanced deeply in his eyes to make sure that it wasn´t a trick and she was really talking to him. Relieved she noted that he was himself again and not Khivar possessing him. That had been a hell of a trip. " Khivar had been controlling you, but now he´s gone".

Lykus eyed her worriedly, checking her visibly for any injury. He didn´t want to hurt her in any kind, not after what he had done to her. Realizing that her hand was on her forehead and red fluid coming from the place he felt disgusted with himself. " Oh god, did I do that?".

" Not really. Don´t make such a fuss, it´s nothing serious", lifting her hand from the small wound she looked at it. Seeing the blood she was thrown for a moment because there was no pain. Not even a pinching. But if she was bleeding so much the bruise had to be hurting pretty bad.

Lykus inspected her skin and was surprised to see a small scratch closing fast. The blood around it was disappearing as well just as quick. Impressed he touched the spot where the injury had been and discovered that everything was gone and nothing was visible anymore. " Woah, you just healed yourself in record time. That´s a pretty neat trick you´ve got there".

Marianna was glad about that gift or else she could be really hurt. Looking at the hammer lying at her feet, she was sure that for anyone else the impact would have been deadly. Thank god for her thick skull. " Part of the goddess deal".

" I know what happened to Michael", Nicolai had told him that information and even through they hadn´t been friends, he felt his loss more than he had thought. Maybe because he meant so much to Maria and she was the one suffering in all this. Or there was a tiny part respecting the other man. Either way it had been a slap for him to know that the royals were one less.

Marianna turned away from him and walked towards her half brother. She didn´t want to think about Michael now, because then she would start crying again and she wouldn´t probably stop soon with it. Besides the sorrow was still too fresh and the pain seemed to choke her. Ignoring the question she stepped closer to Nicolai to see for herself that he really was dead. Although she didn´t feel anything towards him, he was after all still her brother and a small part of her felt sympathy for him. He had been just a product from Khivar and his education. He never had a chance to grow up like any normal boy. Just as she was about to lay a hand on his chest to show her respect, she startled when it was slapped away. Angrily she whirled her head around to look at the basher. Stunned she stumbled backwards in the arms of Lykus. " What are you doing here Rath? Didn´t you destroy enough?".

Rath moved forward and stopped immediately in his tracks when he saw her hand shooting upwards. Holding his hand up in surrender he tried to find the right words to explain a few things. " I´m not here to make trouble. Believe me, I want to help".

" I should believe you? Never", Marianna wouldn´t make the same mistake and trusting the wrong people again. She had finally learned that lesson and she had learned even something new. Concentrating she flung him at the wall behind him and kept him trapped there. Briskly marching in his direction she paused in front of him. " You killed my sister and you hurt my parents. Tell me one good reason why I shouldn´t kill you?".

Rath almost lost his consciousness from the collision with the wood. His breath was knocked from his lungs and the back of his head crashed with full force against the hard plank. He prayed to everything holy to him that he would do anything if his death would be quick and without pain. But seeing his former lover glaring at him with black eyes he was sure that he could forget that. " Because I´m on your side. Your sister had been an accident. You know I would never do something to hurt you".

Marianna glanced in those familiar eyes and she recognized the person she fell in love with on Antar. The same guy who had teased her, stolen her clothes, saved her from Lareks evil two left feet and had annoyed her to no end. And yet she was afraid that it was an ambush. " Why should I believe a thing you´re saying?".

" Because he´s telling the truth. He had to do something to get Khivars trust which would get him the inside scoop which in return was good for us. Yes he planted the bomb on the car, but he placed it so obvious that he knew you would find it and save your parents. He´s pretty heartbroken about the loss of your sister", Lykus was more than pissed to admit it. As much as he wanted to let the other man suffer her fury, after all they never got along even if they stood on the same side, he couldn´t do it. It wouldn´t have felt right after the many things they both had do endure under the watchful eyes of Nicolai and Khivar. Besides if Marianna was getting angry, he had a scapegoat for everything.

Marianna turned around and stared puzzled at Lykus. He was defending someone he thought was the most disgusting creature he knew? Either Rath was really telling the truth or they both were making common cause. Alarmed she stepped back from them and rummaged around in her pocket for the bullets she had put there. Finally finding them she pulled all out. " Okay I don´t know who I can trust anymore, so I suggest a little game with the nice name Russian Roulette. I´ve got five winchester bullets who can kill a fully grown elephant. I will take two", she held them up for the boys to see. " and reserve them for you in case you try to lie to me. Should I realize you´re not honest with me I won´t hesistate to blast your brains out".

Lykus went forward to explain everything to her, but when he noticed her glare. She wasn´t kidding, she was dead serious with her threat. He could even understand her. If he would be in her situation he wouldn´t react differently. " We´re not the bad guys", seeing one of the bullets hovering in the air, he knew that he wouldn´t get far with a rational approach. " What can we do to make you trust us?".

" Bring Michael back and Lindsey and undo everything that happened in the last days", Marianna was well aware of the fact that nobody had the power to do that, but she was so tired. Tired of this responsibility, tired of being sad, angry or hurting and most of all tired of this life. It felt like a life time since she had been a relative normal teenagers, worrying about clothes, Make up and the cute guy at the mall. She couldn´t even remember the last time she talked to her girlfriends without it being something dangerous or about an attack. If they should come out of this alive, they would make up for it.

Rath´s fear melted at the broken girl in front of him and without thinking twice he strode past Lykus towards Marianna and wrapped his arms around her. Tenderly he started to caress her back while he slightly rocked her. " I´m sorry sweetie, we can´t do that. But if I could I would do it immediately for you".

Lykus felt a little out of place and jealous about the peaceful picture. They both were so made for each other that it hurt to see them so intimatedly intertwined. Like they had made a time transfer and were now on Antar again. " I´ll get back at the base and inform Larek and Nolak about Khivars appointment", picking up that his presence wasn´t longer of use and that they both didn´t even listen to him, he went out of the building.

Meanwhile Marianna had lost all her anger and now there was just grief, hard and painful. The tears she had kept inside for so long broke out of her like out of a damaged dam. All the feelings she had supressed were bubbling to the surface and were almost choking her. Deep sobs were rocking her body and she held tight onto Rath muscular arms. " I want him back. I can´t live without him. I need him at my side".

" I know. But sometimes things happen and we can´t change them even if we wanted", Rath felt tears prickling his eyes, which he tried to blink away. He didn´t know if it was her feelings echoing through him, because of his empath powers or if it was the pain in her eyes that broke his heart. Looking at her head he saw that she had changed into her human form again.

Maria pressed her face at his chest and noticed the familiar scent. It was reminding her about Michael and yet it was different. The strong hands rubbing her back comfortly felt intimate and strange. Actually it was so like her past and her present met the future. Unfortunately it wasn´t so bad. " Everything is falling apart around me and I can´t do anything against it. Again. I lost the father of my children and I couldn´t save him. I can´t defeat destiny nor can I escape it".

Rath was surprised about the fact that she was pregnant. Nobody had told him about it. That was changing everything now, all the thoughts were useless. " Yes you can and you will", he pushed her softly away from his body and looked in her puffy eyes with the red cute nose. " Marianna didn´t know the word giving up and she would have never abandoned her people. If you want or not you´re her and I can see her in you. You were born for this moment and no matter the outcome you will get through it".

" I don´t think I can. I don´t have the strength anymore", Maria pulled her arms back from him and went to the wall besides her, where she slumped on the ground. Drawing her legs at her body she put her head on her knees and watched the outside. It was like the reality and her life were worlds apart. The humans lived on Earth wile she was stuck in a place called hell.

Rath walked towards her and made himself comfortable at her side. Laying his right arm around her shoulder he pulled her closer. He probably needed the contact more than her, but it was a wonderful feeling to have her near again. Until their last conversation he hadn´t known how much he had missed her. " You´re just tired. Maybe you should sleep a little", seeing her panicked expression he smiled at her. " Don´t worry, I will stay with you and protect you from any harm".

Maria wouldn´t admit it but she really was dead on her feet and close to collapse. But the fear of not being on guard and maybe losing more of her family was keeping her awake. And she was afraid to go to sleep and not wake up again. " Thanks for the offer, but it´s not necessary".

" I insist. Besides do it for the babies inside you. It can´t be good for them when you destroy yourself", Rath laid a hand on her belly and immediately two tiny bright spots appeared under her t-shirt, seemingly greeting him. He grinned at her while the feeling of warmth and love was flooding him. That would have been his children if he would have been faster. Sadly they would never know their father and how much he would have loved them.

Maria put her hand on top of his and a part of the love was passing over to her. For the first time she really felt that she was pregnant and that two tiny persons were in her, waiting to come into this world. Two replicas of her and Michael. Happy tears fell from her eyes when she noticed them kicking. It wasn´t hard, but it was there. She hadn´t been having time to grasp the whole pregnancy thing with everything going on and she wondered if she would even have the time to enjoy it. " You´re right. A little sleep won´t hurt me".

Rath patted his lap with both hands, ignoring the fact that she gave him right in something. Seconds later she was laying with her head on his legs and fell asleep as soon as she was comfortable while he brushed her hair back and watched her beautiful face. He had dreamed about a reunion with her since knowing that she was here on Earth. But when he saw her so deeply in love with another man, it had broken his heart, even through he knew that the other man had his essence in his body. " I will help you get back what you´ve lost, I swear. This time we both make a difference", bending down he tenderly kissed her forehead before he went back to observing his surroundings.

**Dreamplane**

Maria was standing again at the beach she had been the first time in her dream. But this time it didn´t feel so calm anymore. Not that it felt dangerous or so, but something felt different. Whirling around she looked if anything was at another place or gone. But everything was at the right spot and there. Confused she dropped her gaze and saw two tiny sets of footprints edged into the sand with larger ones besides them. Intrigued she followed the traces while she kept her ears on alert in case the thing from the last time made an appearance again. A few miles later she tripped over something and crashed on the soft, warm sand. Quietly cursing she turned around and noticed that she stumbled across a huge shell. Crawling towards it she startled when it opened and a wonderful white pearl emerged. Stunned from the beauty, she stretched her hand out to get the expensive ball. But before she even came near it, the thing snapped shut and almost bit off her finger in the process. Pulling her arm back horrofied, she glared at the shell.

" I didn´t want the pearl anyway. In my world I can buy it if I want and you can´t do anything against it. Stupid sea thingy".

Suddenly steps neared her and she turned around in alarm, fearing that it was something dangerous or deadly or both. Jumping to her feet she put her right arm up and surprisingly a green forcefield appeared out of nowhere. " Don´t worry princess. I come in peace".

Maria lost her balance for a moment when she heard the familiar voice. Squinting against the sun she just recognized the outlines of the person in front of her, but she already knew who it was. " Michael?".

" Yeah babe, it´s me", he slowly walked out from the blinding light and touched tenderly her face. A bright smile was on his face and he seemed to be at ease. His amber eyes were sparkling happily and they weren´t so full of worry and sadness anymore.

Immediately Maria threw her arms around him and pressed him tightly at herself. She knew that he wasn´t really there with her and as soon as she woke up he would still be dead, but at least here she could pretend he was with her and alive. Crying softly on his black Metallica t-shirt she picked up the most wonderful smell in the world. Now she knew that it was him. " I miss you so much".

Michael kissed her head while his hands were soothingly massaging her back. " I miss you, too. Much more than I expected".

" Then I grew more on you than I thought", smiling through her tears she pulled back to look in his eyes. For the first time she really felt calm, collected and in peace with herself. She couldn´t remember the last time she had that feeling and it had been much longer when she smiled without it being forced. Cupping his face she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him with a passion that almost blew both of their heads away.

Michael had a nice blush when she released him. It was the cutest expression on him. It made him look like a teenager who just got his first kiss. Never in the time she had known him did he appear more beautiful to her than in this moment. " Oh damn".

Maria was just in the process to say the same, when she heard quiet giggles besides her. Turning her head she didn´t see anyone whether at her right nor at her left side. Glancing down she finally discovered the source of the noise. Belle and her brother were there again. Both trying in vain to hide their snickers behind their tiny hands. " Hello sweeties. It´s nice to see you again".

" They came with me", Michael shocked her with that statement and after he said that the two children walked at his side and pressed their small bodies at him.

Maria eyed the three standing in front of her. They almost looked like a family, at least without a mother. Suddenly she noted the similarities between the young boy and Michael. They were one and the same, just that the boy had green eyes. Turning her attention to the girl she realized she was the replica of her just with brown eyes. Finally she figured out that they were her children. Shocked she held her right hand in front of her mouth. Meeting the glance of Michael she saw the truth in his expression. Kneeling on the ground she put her hands of the faces of the children. " Oh my god. I know who you are".

Belle grinned widely at her mother before embracing her wholeheartly. " I thought you would never find it out".

" I´m so sorry for not recognizing you sooner. I was so busy with everything else. Forgive me", Maria caressed the blonde hair with one hand while the other was still holding onto the cheek of the boy, which she had named Rath because of his moping character. She looked deeply in his eyes which were so familiar to her. Smiling at him she saw his initial dislike dissolve into nothing. His expression softened and he followed the example of his sister and huged his mother. For a few minutes the three paused in this position and enjoyed the closeness.

Until Michael coughed loudly to get their attention. He glanced at the invisible watch on his wrist and then at his family. " We don´t have much time. We´ve got a reason for being here".

Maria stood up from the sandy ground without releasing the hands of her children and faced him. She had been so happy to see them that she forgot about everything else going on. She should have known that she wasn´t here to have a reunion with her lover. Of course there was always something else. " What give´s?".

" I know you have heard about the granilith. We got some information about it and I know you won´t like them", carefully he took her hand and stroked over the back of it with his thumb to take away the fear a little. After all the complete responsibility was laying on her shoulders and she was the only one capable to end this war, which had been raging for centuries now. " Okay, this granilith was built for Nemetona. She is the only one able to control it".

Maria was puzzled for a moment. As far as knew that was a good message. Nemetona lived deep down inside her and nobody else would know how to activate or use the thing. But nothing in her world was easy any longer, so she was prepared for the downside of the deal. " I hear a but in all this".

Michael hated to be the one bringing bad news, but it had to be done. If she wanted to do everything in her power to defeat Khivar this time, she needed all information that would give her an advantage. Besides he didn´t want to see her joining him so quick. " Yeah. A goddess has a body that can come through everything, which is the reason that she has so much power. To activate the granilith she needs to use all of her energy. Unfortunately you are a goddess just with the body of an antarian woman, which means you can use the granilith, but there´s a chance that you won´t survive the lose of so much energy".

" Are you trying to tell me that I can end this war but I won´t be alive to witness it?", Maria felt her children squeezing her hands tightly, like they would know the implication of what was going on. Maybe they knew already what would be happening in the future. After all they weren´t even born and yet they made the impression to know more than her.

Michael saw the fear in her eyes and all he wanted to do was taking her in his arms and telling her that everything would be okay. That she would survive this and there would be a happy ending. Unfortunately he had no influence with future events.The only thing he could offer was to stay at her side and guide her, maybe even giving her a little hope back. " I´m sorry. I know this isn´t what you wanna hear right now, especially after everything you went through. But we wanted to tell you the options, so that you can decide what do to. The ball is now in your court and no matter what you choose the kids and I will be behind you 100 percent".

Maria sensed a heart attack or at least her brain would explode in the next seconds. How could he say something like that to her? It was like deciding between dying from burning or drowning. Both were painful and not in the least comfortable. She couldn´t just sacrifice herself in her state. Well if she wouldn´t be pregnant she would do it in a heartbeat. But now she had to consider her babies in her decision. On the other hand she couldn´t let Khivar win this time. The people at the base were counting on her and she had promised to protect them. " What would you think when I would choose to run away instead of facing my fears? If I would let everyone down?".

" Then we would still got your back. We love you and nothing you would do could change that", Michael put both of his hands on her cheeks and pulled her face close to his until their lips touched in a sweet kiss, much to the amusement of the two children at their feet.

Maria enjoyed the spicy taste he always left on her mouth. She knew that this would be the last time she could feel those strong hands touch her tender skin, the last time this pouty lips would meet hers and the last time she would feel so loved and at ease with someone. Crying softly she stepped back from him to see in his eyes. She wanted to mesmerize the way he looked at her, because she would never experience another man regarding her with so much adoration and passion again. " I love you, too. All three of you".

Michael wiped her tears from her face with his thumbs. It broke his heart to see her like this. He always knew she was a emotional person just hiding behind her tough exterior, but the deep hits of the last week had taken its toll on her and left a few scars behind. She would never be the same again after this. " We know that. And remember: You will never be alone. We´re constantly with you".

" Daddy, it´s time. We have to go", Belle plucked on the trouser leg of her father. Her brother was looking over his shoulder at the people walking towards them, noticing that their visit was finished.

Maria shook her head and more tears spilled from her eyes. She didn´t want them to go, they had to stay longer. She didn´t want to be alone anymore. " You can´t leave me now! There are still things I want to tell you".

Michael smiled at her like he already knew what it was that she wanted to say to him before he disappeared into nothing in front of her eyes.

" Bye mommy", Belle pouted sadly, her pretty brown eyes glittering with unshed tears while her lips trembled slightly.

Maria kneeled on the ground and wrapped her arms tightly around her children. She wanted to never let them go again, out of fear for never having the chance to see them, because no matter what way she went it wouldn´t end good for her. " I love you both very much. Never forget that. And be good to daddy", she felt them nod their heads and whispering that they also loved her before she almost crashed face first in the sand, because they disappeared too. Thankfully she caught herself in time and stood up. Startled she noticed that she wasn´t alone. A group of persons had placed themself a few metres away from her and were staring in her direction. Persons she knew very well. Glancing at them she saw Mael, King Salem, Queen Lutezia, Abidale, both of her antarian parents and Lindsey. Everyone who ever died because of her.

Hewlik was the first to come forward and like the last time he didn´t appear angry. His eyes sparkled with happiness and serenity. Immediately he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead, which he hadn´t done very often when he was alive. " My angel. Glad to see you again".

" Me too. What are you all doing here?", not that Maria had anything against the visit from the people, who had been at one point pretty damn close to her. But it was strange to see them all in her dream. Even though she enjoyed the warmth of her former fathers strong arms.

Now her mother stepped closer and replaced Hewlik, who let himself easily be put aside. She squeezed her daughter tightly at her small body and caressed the younger girls beautiful blonde hair. " We´re all here to give you our support. Although we can´t be with you in this hard time, we want to help you the only way we can".

At that Leiana made place for Mael, who was smiling encouraging at her. He took her face in his hands and looked deep in her eyes, like he was searching for something there. After a few seconds he seemed to have found it. " You´re strong and you´re smart. You had been a pretty damn good soldier and the best commander anyone could hope for. Don´t let your fear lead you. You are capable of much more than you think".

" Listen to him, because it´s the only time he will say that", Abidale quipped from behind, trying to ease the sad mood a little. She and the Queen were both smiling warmly at her and made an attempt to look tough.

Finally King Salem walked towards her, his eyes were shining with wisdom and years of seeing the way of the planet with the good and the bad times. His crown was glistening in the sun and almost blinded Maria for a bit. " We know that it won´t be easy for you and more people are going to die under your watch. But if anyones destinied to lead them to win this war, then it´s you. We all have faith in your ability".

Lindsey was the last in line and slowly made her way in the direction of her sister. This time Maria had to repress the urge to break out in tears, because of all present persons, she was the one whose death hit her the hardest. " You have the chance to make a difference this time. You just have to stretched your hand out to grasp the chance".

" I don´t know if I´m strong enough. Look at what it already cost me. I lost so much people I loved because I couldn´t protect them", Maria felt fear crawling up her spine and gripping her heart in a tight hold. She didn´t want to lead a battle just to witness everyone die around her again.

Lindsey picked up the cold hands of her sister and grinned trustingly at her. " We all believe in you".

Maria wanted to shake her head and ask her why they had so much faith in her when not even she trusted herself enough. But in that moment everyone vanished in thin air and left her behind alone with only her thoughts keeping her company. Tottaly upset she dropped down in the warm sand and put her face in her hands, pondering her options. She had to make the biggest decision of her life.

**Outside the dreamplane**

Rath had his head leaning on the wall behind him. A few minutes ago he had woken up after closing his eyes for an hour. He had been so tired of watching the huge hall and Maria sleeping so peacefully on his lap that he hadn´t been able to stay awake. Besides he just had been having time to take quick naps in the last few weeks, because of the preparation for the war. And since he knew that he had killed a small girl he couldn´t sleep without having nightmares of her. When Nicolai informed him about that fact he almost broke out in tears. Just the thought of ending the life of an innocent had disgusted him. For days he hadn´t been able to look at himself in the mirror. He imagined the pain Maria had to feel and it almost destroyed him. Thankfully Lykus had put his mind right again, even if he would have liked if someone else would have done it. Now he was glad to be helpful and do the right thing and maybe make amends. Looking down at the woman on his thighs, he knew that he had made on thing right. Protecting her. He didn´t want to think what would have happened if their connection hadn´t been intact, although years and even galaxies had been passed. But he also knew that she would never love him the way she had loved Michael. That part of her that had been in love with him was gone now. He had no place on this planet any longer.

" I don´t belong here".

Suddenly he felt Maria stir. Her eyes opened and closed for a few seconds before she was fully there with him. Her eyes were clear and for the first time he saw the little girl she once had been. Fear, anger, love, happiness and sorrow was all mixed in her expression. " How long have I been asleep?".

Rath looked outside and saw that the sun was slowly disappearing. The sky was lit in red and orange colors. It had to be sunset, which meant it seemed to be lose to seven o´clock. " six hours".

" That long? Damn", Maria shoot up from her comfortable place and jumped on her feet, stretching her sore muscles in the process. She felt like she had slept in a small box, all wedged and twisted.

Rath followed her example and stood up, relaxing the tension in special body parts. It wasn´t the most cozy place to sit hours on the hard ground. His ass cheeks and his legs felt a little numb. It would probably take time to get feeling in them again. " Do you want to go back to the base?".

Maria faced him and she saw the man she had been so much in love in her past life. It would be so easy to fall for him again. Unfortunately her heart belonged to Michael and nobody would ever replace him. But maybe they could be friends. " You go back there and help Larek and Nolak preparing the men for the upcoming battle. I will join you all later".

" What are you up to?", Rath had a uneasy feeling in his gut. He knew her, well he had reason to. As much as she thought she was someone different, part of Marianna was so deeply ingrained into her that she didn´t notice how similiar both women were.

Maria broke the eye contact and turned her back on him. She hated to admit it, but she was afraid he could see right through her and detect the truth. She didn´t want that. Not now and especially not from him. " Don´t worry about that. I will be careful", that said she burst into flames and was gone.

Rath stared stunned at the spot where she disappeared. He wondered what was going in the out of touch with the real world mind of hers. Hopefully she was not getting cold feet and deserted everybody counting on her.

TBC


	65. Chapter 65

**Chapter 63 Showdown in the desert**

Lykus stood in front the huge boulder, which functioned as cover for the elevator. He was already trying to open the damn doors for a few minutes now. But everytime he waved his hand over the marked place nothing happened. The glowling handprint appeared, yet the door kept closed. Something was seriously wrong down there and he had a uneasy feeling because of that. Getting his cellphone from his the pocket of his blue jeans he was just in the process to dial the number from Larek when the elevator opened all of the sudden and Nolak stepped out hastily. He almost ran the other man over.

" Hey, what is going on? What was up with the elevator?".

Nolak startled and looked up surprised at his opponent. He was obviously in a hurry and pretty much out of his mind. The worry and fear was clearly etched on his usually expressionless face. " Maria destroyed it in her haste to run away. Now I´m trying to find her before she does something stupid".

Lykus grasped his arm to keep him from going away. But as soon as he saw the glare directed at him he released his grip immediately. No need to lose a limb because of it. " Maria isn´t in trouble. But we are if we stay out here and gossip like hags. Khivar has left us a dead line. Tomorrow he´s coming and believe me he won´t stop by for tea and cake".

" How do you know that?", Nolak didn´t trust anyone, except his funny looking companion and the small group of teenagers sitting under the ground and worrying about one of their own. He had seen too much misery already and he wanted to end it.

Lykus saw the distrust in the other mans eyes and wondered what happened to make him like that. Until today he usually had the trust of him and the soldiers at the base. It was like something had been going on and he missed it. " I´ll explain it to you another time. But not now, unless you want to get in this war with unprepared men?".

Nolak was torn about listening to him or to his instinct for a few seconds before his gut told him that he should forgot his feelings and take the statement serious. After all he could still kill the younger man if it would be clear that everything was false alarm. " Follow me. But no funny business or I swear I will let your eyeballs explode like overfilled waterballons".

" Yeah, yeah. Understood", Lykus walked behind him into the elevator and stood at his side while the box made its way down. " By the way, nice visual you gave me. Exploding eye balls. I like it".

Nolak rolled his eyes and watched the display blinking the levels. He wanted to be away from as soon as possible. Something was different with him. He could sense something darker and colder clinging to the young mans aura. Something that made him a bit scared, because it felt like Khivar. " And I meant what I said".

Lykus didn´t know if it was allowed to laugh so he swallowed his humour. What was going on here? Did something happen while he was gone? Oh god, did someone else die?" Why are you so strange towards me?".

" I´m not strange. You´re imagining things", Nolak realized they were in the underground. Satisfied he waited until the doors opened before quickly storming out of the elevator and in the direction of the headquarter of the base. He knew Larek was there.

Lykus had difficulty to follow after the older man and wondered why he was in such a hurry to get away from him. Sniffing his armpits he noticed that it wasn´t because he smelt bad. Hurrying to catch up with Nolak he gripped his shoulder to stop him in his tracks. " What is going on here and don´t say nothing. I know something is wrong. You´re acting a little weird and I´m just curious why that is?".

Nolak was tempted to fling him over his shoulder and break his back. But when he turned his face, he saw that the young man was really clueless. Didn´t he realize the smell of evil on his clothes? Or was this a trap? Unfortunately he had just one opinion to get to the bottom of his problem. " I don´t know if you are who you appear. You feel like Khivar".

" I can explain that. I had been possessed from him, but now he´s gone. I swear, I´m really Lykus", he hadn´t known that it was so noticable. But if that was the case, why was he still alive and standing on his own two feet? If he seemed to be someone different why wait so long and give him the opportunity to strike?

Nolak turned around fully and eyed the other man with intensity. He was searching for the truth in his gaze. He was surprised to see so much emotions swirling in the eyes of Lykus. Khivar wouldn´t even have the strength to fake that, because he was heartless and cold. " Is Maria really all right? Or did Khivar so something to her?".

Lykus smiled relieved and let out the breath he had been holding. Damn now he had to change his clothes, because he had been sweating through the fabric. Shit, he hadn´t realized how scary the older man could be. " She´s fine. Rath is with her right now".

" Is she safe with him?", Nolak was worried about her. She was like a daughter to him and he wanted to see that for once everything make a different turn. That she would live a long life with her family and friends, her children and maybe a husband in the near future.

Lykus raised an eyebrow at the older man, like he wanted to say " Duh". But he refrained from voicing his thought, knowing that he was treading on thin ice with him at the moment. " It´s Rath, not Khivar. He wouldn´t hurt her. As much as it kills me to admit it, he loves her. He would rather kill himself than lay a hand on her".

Nolak nodded seemingly satisfied with the answer given. He remembered the loving glances his charges threw at each other when they thought no one was looking. Their love had been so special and unique, even for their alien standards. It had touched something inside him to witness something so wonderful that he regretted never taking the time to search for a mate and maybe finding the same happiness. " Right, I forgot. But you can´t blame me for being concerned".

" Of course not. I know how much you love those kids and I´m glad that they have someone at their back they can trust and respect", Lykus would probably always love Maria and wishing her all the joy on this world, even if that meant she would find it with another man. Rath or Michael included, but just barely.

Nolak rubbed his tired eyes, feeling the need to lay down and sleep until this whole thing was over. If they survived this war, he would retire and live the rest of his life on some tropical island somewhere with no people around and no way to find it. And no computer and no phone either. Maybe he would find a new island and name it after himself. " Yeah. And I want them to come out alive from this situation".

Lykus patted the other mans back and steered him in the direction of the common hall, where most of the soldiers were hanging around at this time of the day. " That´s the reason why we´re telling everyone about the appointment now. Don´t worry I will say it. You just stand besides me and look beautiful".

" I hate you", Nolak wondered what was wrong with his fate. Firstly he was graced with Larek, who thought he was funny, but in reality was just lousy and now he was punished with the replica of his companion. Maybe they both had been seperated at birth.

Lykus grinned mischievously at him. He heard that sentence a few times in his life. Usually from women and Marianna had voiced it sometimes when they fought. But this time he knew the meaning wasn´t bad. " Yeah, right back at ya", then he opened the door in front of him and watched the many men sitting, standing, playing or sleeping.

Nolak pushed himself past the other man and coughed loudly to get the attention of the soldiers. Immediately everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to the two men standing at the entrance. " The worst has come to the worst. The battle is beginning soon. Khivar and his men will attack tomorrow", confused he scrunched his face up and faced the man besides him. " Do you know an exact time?".

" Yes", Lykus whispered through the corner of his mouth. " at noon".

Nolak nodded his thanks while he turned his head towards the men staring at him horrofied, excited or plain scared. Even through they trained for this day, it was a shock for all. " Tomorrow at noon Khivar will expect us outside this doors. The time to relax is over. The battle begins".

Lykus observed the reaction of the soldiers and saw good men forgetting their fears, ready to fight for their cause and lose their life at it. Sighing he knew that he would never forget this moment as long as he lived, even if it wouldn´t take long for him to die. " Everyone better with mindpowers comes with me. The others go with Nolak. Tonight we plan our battle strategy".

Instantly all the men got in gear. One group went into the right direction towards the practise room while the other group walked calmly towards the gym. Everybody fearing the battle ahead.

**Human Army base outside of Roswell**

Maria appeared in the middle of a busy hallway. People of every gender, nationality, height and weight were walking hurriedly around. Some of them were talking with someone on their walky talkies, others in turn were in deep conversations with the person next to them while another held papers in their hands and read it during the brisk steps they made. It took a long moment for them to notice the girl standing in their midst. Immediately everyone wearing an army uniform drew their weapon from their belts and pointed it at her.

Maria put her hands up to indicate that she was unarmed. Breathing evenly to get her fear under control she looked for someone authorized she could talk to. Finding a general near her she held eye contact with him. " Don´t shoot. I come in peace".

" How did you come in here?", the General with the brown uniform stepped out from the crowd of soldiers and towards her. He seemed to be in his late fourties, with slight white hair peeking from his hat and almost grey eyes looking suspicious at her. He was two heads taller than her and he had to look down.

Maria didn´t back down from the older man, even though her heart was beating strongly in her throat. She knew that she could escape without them stopping her, but she needed their help if she wanted to save earth from getting taken over from aliens. " I would say a mix between alien powers and my divine character".

Universal murmurs were heard around her. Soldiers whispered with the person next to them. Contrary to the General, staring at her with distrust and a little fear. " So it´s real what channel eight was showing?".

" Huh? I don´t know what you mean", Maria seemed to have missed something. Something big apparently. What did Khivar do this time?

The General stared in her face, deciding if she was pulling his leg or if she was honest. Noticing that she really was in the unknown, he gave his men a sign to step back a little and lower their weapon, but stay on guard. Uncertain he turned back to the small slip of a girl and wondered if she was as innocent as she seemed. " I can show you what I mean. But if you try anything my men will shoot before you can say peep".

Maria had already expected a threat from the older man. Actually she had thought it would be sooner and more angrier, but she was glad that he treated her a little nicer. Strange, in the movies it was always bloodier, more disgusting and pretty action laden. " You have my word that I´m not here to make trouble. Or do you think my people are so stupid to send a single girl into a base full of soldiers?".

" How can I trust what you say?", the General faced a few of his men and gave them the order to search the surroundings for more aliens or suspicious looking people. Then he turned his attention back to the girl, who shook her head amused. " Why are you smiling?".

Maria was surprised how much alike humans and aliens were. They didn´t trust anyone easily and they were cautious if not too wary. Too bad that a fellowship between the both would never work even through they weren´t so much different. " I would have sent soldiers to look for intruder, too", after that her face got serious. " But before we got sidetracked, you´re asking me how you can trust me. But how can I trust you? What can you give me to ensure my safety? I´ve watched enough science-fiction movies to know what happens to my kind when the army gets their fingers on them".

The General was impressed about her and her bluntness. She was nobody´s fool and she didn´t seem to be someone who would let herself get screwed from anyone. And she had a point. Trust had to be from both sides. " All right. I will send everyone except one soldier away. How is that?"

" Okay. And I promise you that I won´t use my alien powers to do something. If I should make a wrong move, you have the permission to shoot me. Do we have a deal?", Maria slowly stretched her hand towards the older man in a friendly gesture. She didn´t want to get her brain blown away, because someone thought she was a threat.

The General hesitated for a few seconds. Glancing in her eyes, he saw something that made him realize that she was really just a girl, alien or not. Pain and sorrow. Usually the aliens in the movies had no reflection in their black orbs. But she had. And he remembered his daughter, probably in the same age as her. Grasping her offered hand he shook it. " We have a deal. Now follow after me please".

Maria waited until the man started walking before getting in gear herself. For the first time she felt something close to insecurity, a feeling she just knew from others but never from experience. Noticing the loaded weapon directed at her back was intensifing this sense of fear. She gazed at the many young men lining at the sides and watching her. She could already imagine what they were thinking about her. How she looked in her true form? What kind of power she had? And most of all if there was more of her kind here on earth and if they wanted to take over the world? Recognizing a few from their visits at the crashdown, she saw their confusion and the anger. She couldn´t blame them, they had been trained to look out for aliens and they hadn´t even realized that they got served from one. Dropping her head she stared at the nice in black tiled floor under her. After a while she suddenly bumped into the backside of the General. Straigthening herself she looked up just in time to witness that she was in some strange room with a huge screen, where the fight between her and her half brother was constantly showing in an endless loop. Closing her eyes she prayed that she was still sleeping and this was just a nightmare. Unfortunately as soon as she opened her eyes she noted that everything was real. " Oh god! I jeopardized everybody´s life with that. Nolak and Larek will kick my ass".

" Are you that on this video?", the General asked stunned. Except for the blonde hair and maybe the unusual green eyes, the both seemed to be two different women. Looking closer at her he stepped back shocked, because he finally knew who was standing in front of him. The last time he had seen had she had been eight or nine years old. " You´re Maria. Jim Valentis oldest daughter".

Maria was surprised that the older man knew her. But being a family member from a Sheriff in a small town, actually no wonder and to top of it her grandfather had been Sheriff, too. So she had to be well known all over town. " Yes".

The General took her hand and patted it softly. For the first time the distrust and the suspicion was gone from his eyes. Now there was sympathy and a little sadness in them. " I´ve heard about your little sister and your parents. We all had been shocked to know that Jim and Amy are in the hospital and Lindsey dead".

Maria swallowed the tears threatening to fill her eyes every moment. Fighting the urge to wipe them, she steeled herself against anything that could break her determination. She had an important mission to fullfill. " Yeah. But that´s not why I´m here".

" Sit down and tell me the reason to get yourself in danger like that", the General released her hand and pointed at the small metal table in the middle of the room with the matching chairs.

Maria hadn´t expected this twist. She thought they would threaten her, maybe get her under control with handcuffs and armed force, but that she would be invited to sit down and talk? Thankfully she wasn´t picky and took place on the chair carefully, always being on guard. She waited until her opponent was sitting, too before telling him what she had planned and what she needed.

**Antarian Army base**

Kyle and Sean were side by side in front of the huge mirror watching themself pumping iron. An hour ago they had been told to prepare for the battle ahead of them, which would be starting tomorrow. Tess and Isabel had been sent to Lykus, to boost their mental power while Max was with Nolak to learn to control his more dangerous powers. The humans, well mostly just both males, were ordered to built more strength in their body to be able to handle the antarian weapons, which they would be introduced later that day. They had seen the laser guns and the swords already. Sean had rubbed his hands in anticipation, happy to fire bullets around. Kyle in return was more drawn to the laserswords, the dangerous looking blade made to cut through everything. Unfortunately they got discovered and were banned from the amoury to go into the gym section of the base, where they were now.

" Do you think Maria is okay?", Kyle was pretty worried about his sister. Even though Lykus had told him that she was with this Rath person, who would look after her, he wasn´t that convinced that she was well. And he hoped that she was coming back soon.

Sean smiled at his reflection while he tensed up his biceps, which wasn´t that big because of the years of non exercising. But it was enough to kick some alien ass, especially the ones who were after his cousin and their friends. " Yeah. She´s capable of defending herself. You know her, everybody is more afraid of her than she from them".

Kyle dropped his weights and planted his butt on the surprisingly clean floor. Letting his eyes roam quickly over the space around him and watching the few equipment in this room, there was just a trim bike, a rowing machine, some things to shape the muscles and the weights. " Still. That doesn´t stop me from worrying. She´s after all the only thing I have right now".

" Thanks. It´s really nice to know where I stand", Sean didn´t mean that seriously. He understood the other boy, more than he wanted. He was family alright, but Maria was closer to him. They grew up together under a roof. He wished he would have a sibling, too. Unfortunately he was an only child.

Kyle glanced at his cousin and felt bad. He didn´t mean it like it sounded. Sean was like a really good friend, someone you could confide in when you had trouble with girls or other things. But his sister was like the best friend you couldn´t live without. " I´m sorry. I didn´t want to hurt you".

Sean shrugged his shoulders careless. He heard worse in his life and from people he called his parents. He was also concerned about his cousin, because as much as they fought each other she was part of his family and he protected what was his, legal and even illegal if the need should arise. " It´s okay. I didn´t take your comment personally. I can´t imagine how you feel at the moment and quite frankly I don´t want to, so I will let it slide. This time".

" Are you scared? I mean because of tomorrow", Kyle felt for the first time that everything was getting serious. He knew that this day would come and yet it was a surprise for him. It was like it had been just yesterday that he found out about his sister and now they would be facing a war.

Sean stopped pretending to do something for his muscles and put the weights on the ground besides those of his cousin. If he was scared? Of course. He was ready to piss his pants of fear. But there was a small part of him that knew that it was right what they were doing. They were fighting for a good matter and he wanted to make amends for all the trouble he had caused his parents and friends. Besides those bastards had pissed off him off. " I´m scared shitless actually".

Kyle was relieved to know that he wasn´t the only one with that feeling. He had pondered if he was a coward for admitting that he was afraid. But now he was glad to have voiced it, because he felt better. " Then why are we doing this? We could stay here and wait until everything is over and let those martians fight against each other".

" Because we´re the good guys and we´re always doing the right thing. Yada Yada. Besides we want to protect Maria and take revenge for Lindsey and your parents", Sean rolled his eyes and wondered when he become such a sissy boy. A few years ago he would have taken his things and went the hell out of dodge. Today he stayed behind.

Kyle turned his head to the other man and couldn´t contain his laughter. The tension in his body left and the clutter in his mind was clearing. He was glad to have his cousin at his side or else he would have already lost it. " You sound like Maria".

Sean whirled around and stared at him with wide eyes. The horrofied expression was an act, maybe not everything. " Take that back! I don´t sound like her. She´s more like", he pitched his voice higher until he thought it was like that of a woman. " I can take care of myself. Bla bla. Girlpower.Bla bla. Menstruation. Bla bla. Phone home"

" Wait until I tell her that. She will kick your ass, dude", Kyle held his belly from laughing so much. It was just what he needed.

Suddenly the door to the gym was opened and both men stared at the guy entering. He was pretty tall, dangerous looking with his long black hair and the dark eyes. The aura around him was confident and deadly. He glanced at them, seemingly searching for something. " Are you the humans?".

Sean immediately stood up, preparing himself to pummel his freaking alien ass if he should do as much as a wrong move. One sneezer and this guy was history. " Yeah. And you are?".

" I´m Rath. Larek sent me to bring you to the armory now".

At that Kyle jumped to his feet and went towards the other man. If he was here the chances were that his sister was there, too. Hopefully she was unhurt and ready to manage a full fledged lecture about her reckless behaviour and worrying him almost to death. " Where´s Maria?".

Rath glanced amused at him, needing to lower is eyes to look directly at his opponent. This one felt like his former lover and had even the same attitude. That was probably her human brother, although they didn´t appeared that much alike. " She didn´t come with me. She said something about not worrying and she would join us later".

" I knew it. I knew she would do something stupid without me there to stop her", angrily he stepped closer to the alien and jabbed his finger on his muscular chest. He didn´t care that this man could squish him like a freaking bug without even using his hands. His sister was out there and could do god knows what. " Why didn´t you stop her? You could have dragged her stubborn ass here to us".

Rath´s eyes darkened. He didn´t liked it when someone tried to order him around, especially someone weaker than himself. Even though the boy was related to Maria, it wouldn´t protect him when he got really pissed. " If you want to keep your finger than I suggest pulling it back immediately. Even if we´re on the same side, it won´t stop me from breaking some of your body parts"

Hearing the obvious threat Sean put himself in front of his cousin to protect him. Kyle wasn´t the rowdy in the family, he had been having friends who beat up on others. But he was familiar with dealing out blows and being at the receiving end. More than once he broke a nose or something different. " You touch him and I will punch your lights out before you can use your mumbo jumbo alien powers of yours".

" Are you threatening me?", Rath bent down to look the other man in the eye. They were practically nose to nose and could feel the warm breathe of each other. It was some kinda staring contest to know who would look away first.

Sean met his glance dead on, taking the obvious challenge. Too bad that they couldn´t bet with money on that. He would wint his round, because he didn´t appear so tough, but on the inside he was silent but deadly, well on a bad day. " If I threaten you, you will notice it".

Rath gazed at his counterpart for a few seconds longer before stepping back. He clapped Seans shoulder with a smile on his face. " I like you".

" What?", Sean turned his head to face his cousin, who seemed to be as stunned as him. He thought it would give a fight and although the alien looked like someone you didn´t want to piss off, he had been excited to to do a little exercise.

Rath walked towards the door, already on the way to the armory. He rolled his eyes at the surprised faces. Couldn´t they accept that he changed his mind about them? He always admired fearless men and those brave enough to stand up to him. " Are you coming or not? We don´t have time. And I don´t want to get yelled at from Larek because you two couldn´t get your lazy butts in gear".

Instantly Sean and Kyle jumped into action and follow the big bad wolf.

**Night time**

Liz and Alex had escaped the madness inside the base and stole themself outside in the open air from the desert. Everyone, except them because they had been banned from the actual battle and ordered to handle the computers, prepared for the fight tomorrow. Larek and Nolak had given everyone a weapon, even if the person had enough fire power in their hands. Both hadn´t seen such beautiful swords in their lifes. They were made from pure light and could cut a body in half. The hilt was made from strange wood from antar and looked like human mahogany with a dragon and a snake engraved on it. Then there was bows and guns, but they weren´t so spectacular and almost boring. Kyle and Sean had been like little boys in a candy store and joked around with their swords, pretending to be jedi´s and fighting against the dark side of the force. Tess and even Isabel had scolded them and told them they should finally grow up and act like adults. Max had practised with his newfound power. Now he could let something explode with just his mind, a pretty neat trick he learned from Rath, who was quickly introduced into the little group of friends.

Liz turned her head in the direction of the sky and enjoyed the cold breeze hitting her face. She liked the cold more than the heat, because it gave you a reason to stay at home and cuddle with your lover. Besides it was easier to keep yourself warm than cooling down. " I hope Maria comes soon. I´m afraid she´s bailing on us".

" She wouldn´t do that and you know that", Alex was sure that his best friend had some good reason for being absent so long and she wouldn´t abandon them now. She fought so hard and for a long time that she wouldn´t give up now. Not when her anger was still raging in her.

Liz wrapped her arms around her middle and faced her childhood friend. She didn´t mean it like that. She was just worried and that caused her to say the most stupid things. And she feared that they could be losing her, too. It had been hard enough to see one of them die, but Maria would be harder, because she was like a sister to her and to Alex. " I know. But I can´t rest until I know where she is and if she´s well".

Alex laid an arm around her shoulder and pressed her body closer to his. He felt exactly the same way and he was sure everyone else was like that, too. But they had to have faith in their friend and believe that she would be taking care of herself like she had always done with them. Besides she was by far the most powerful creature he knew. She would beat Godzilla and King Kong together with one arm tied behind her back. " She´ll be here. If not today than tomorrow at the latest".

" What is going on here? Why do you have your arms around my woman?".

Both friends turned around at the sound of Max´ voice behind them. He, Isabel, Tess, Kyle and Sean were walking towards them with amused expressions. They obviously had been having the same idea and wanted to spent a little time outside with fresh air calming their jittery nerves.

Alex squeezed Liz´s shoulder and looked down in her smiling face. He gave her a wink before turning his attention to the group stopping near them. " Damn, you busted us. We thought nobody would notice our forbidden love affair".

" Be glad that I´m such a peaceful person or you would have already meet my five friends", Max waved his fist in the air threateningly in the direction of the other boy. Just the twinkle in his eyes was any indication that they were just joking around. But nontheless he pulled his girlfriend away from the lanky teen and in his arms. " How are you? We didn´t see each other the whole day".

Liz snuggled closer in his arms enjoying the embrace. It had been too long that they had been having time for just the two of them. Everything had been happening so fast that there wasn´t any time to talk or cuddle. Even sleep was a luxury. " I´ve been better", dropping her voice to a whisper so that the others wouldn´t hear her she continued. " I´m afraid, excited, worried and I think I lost at least 10 pounds in the last few days"

Max stroked her head, feeling the strain of the stress himself. Since the attack at the library he couldn´t sleep longer than two hours a night, because his mind was working nonstop. He had to force himself to eat so that he at least had something in his stomach, but he didn´t feel hungry anymore. At least the shaking in his hands and the edgy feeling inside him had disappeared. " I know. I´m feeling the same, even though I went through all that already. But we´re doing something good and a few things are worth fighting for".

" I know that. But I have all this scenario´s running around in my head. I see you dying everytime, sometimes it´s Maria. We lost Michael already, I can´t bear to lose anyone else, especially you", Liz cupped his face lovingly and stared in his beautiful brown eyes. She was afraid to never have the chance to look at him again and notice his stunning beauty. Caressing the light stubble on his cheek, she tried to remember the first time they talked without the others present. He had been so shy and she had been so afraid to open her mouth for the first few minutes. But then they had found a topic for a conversation and after that it had been smooth sailing.

Max understood her concern and to some extent he could relate. That last time everything went wrong and they died. This time they didn´t have a Plan B up their sleeve´s or someone putting their essence in someone else. They just had this one opportunity. " You won´t lose me or anyone else".

Liz shook her head, not believing him. After everything she found out about the last battle they fought against this Khivar person, she feared that it would be like that again. They had been powerful people in their last life and they died. Now they were just humans with alien powers. She had a good reason to worry. " Can you guarantee that? Because as far as I see it we´re screwed. Larek and Nolak told us that Michael and Maria had the most strength and power. But Michael is dead and Maria is missing, we don´t even know if she´s coming or not".

" Don´t you dare think that. Maria will be here", Kyle didn´t want to admit that he listened to their conversation. But it had been hard not to when he was standing so close to the couple and he heard the mention of his sister. Even Tess, secure in his arms, had cocked her ears.

Liz left the cozy place at her boyfriends chest and stared at her friend. She felt bad for him, she really did. But they had to think about every possibility. They couldn´t confide in something that wasn´t even 100 procent sure. Maybe they had to think about other things, like managing the battles themself without Maria at their side. " How do you know that? Are you psychic now?"

Kyle was on the brink to do something bad and he would have done it if Tess wouldn´t have held him back. She tried to send him some of her inner serenity. Everyone was on edge, but it wouldn´t get better if they started attacking each other instead of using their energy wisely. " Not now. We´re facing the hardest challenge of our lifes and we have to stick together, more than ever. I know we´re all pretty nervous and afraid, but it´s not an excuse to fight"

" I know and I´m sorry. I´m just wondering where my best friend is and if she´s okay or needs our help or is lying somewhere in a ditch", Liz had a bad feeling in her gut and usually it was justified. She had felt that something would be happening the day she got shot at. The moment the guys came into the restaurant she had known that they were up to no good. Maria had been taking their orders while she herself had kept them in her sight. Strangly when the shot rang, she hadn´t reacted and just stood there, waiting for the bullet to make an impact, which it did seconds later. The next thing she remembered was the worried face of her best friend hovering over her, ordering to look into her eyes.

Kyle squeezed her shoulder in comfort. They were in the same boat right now. He had been thinking about exactly that since he knew that his sister hadn´t been coming back with Rath. But thankfully he still had the twin connection with her and he would be the first knowing if she´s in trouble or not. At the moment she was scared, jittery and a little relieved, which meant she was still alive. " I´m sorry, too. I didn´t mean to snap at you like that. But I´m afraid she´s doing something stupid without us and this time nobody will be there to stop her".

Sean groaned annoyed. All this drama and talking about things that didn´t even happen was slowly driving him crazy. All right they would be facing a bloody battle, which maybe just the half of them would survive. But they would be at least die fighting for a good reason. And they shouldn´t worry so much about Maria. She was more resistant than everything he knew. Nothing would keep her from coming here to safe the day. Besides she had a bone to pick with this Khivar chap and she wouldn´t give up now that the end was so near. " Would you all stop with the moaning and bitching. You sound like a group of wussies. It´s our last night before we have to play G.I. Joe, so I suggest you try to make the best out of it".

" And what have you planned oh wise one?", Kyle had already made arrangements and he could use a spare room alone with Tess. They needed this break from everyone. She was still hurting from the death of her brother and maybe it would be best if she could let everything out before tomorrow. Besides he liked it to sleep next to her and hear the slight snoring sound she was making.

Sean grinned devilishly at his cousin while his eyes twinkled treacherous. " I´ve got a date, which I will go to now. See you all tomorrow, bright and early", winking at them he went inside.

Alex watched after his retreating back before throwing his hands in the air and shaking his head repeatedly. Although it shouldn´t be a surprise to him, it was. Sean had been always a ladies man and could be charming if he needed to be. " Unbelievable! We´re in a crisis and he stills finds the time hit on some innocent woman".

" Yeah, that´s the Valenti charme. Works everytime with women", Kyle and his cousin often went out together to see who would be picking up the most girls, which he always lost. Sean was slick and not so dumb like everybody thought, besides he used his bad boy attitude to attract the other gender.. He on the other hand tried it with the boy from next door trick. Even though he had his share of girls, he wasn´t nearly as good as his cousin in that regard.

Isabel, who had been quietly listening to the others, finally found something to say. She was still a little shocked to see Rath strolling around the base and being him. It was strange to see him after all these years again and to know that nothing had changed. He had been still in love with Marianna, not even death had destroyed the bond they shared. Looking at Alex and the way he was stunningly staring at his best friend, she was sure she had found the same. " And yet he had a really good idea. We only have this night and we shouldn´t waste it with each other. I mean don´t get me wrong, I love you guys, but I want to spent the last hours with my boyfriend".

Alex turned his head and faced her. For a few seconds they both seemed to be in some kina trance, just seeing in each others eyes and communicating without using one word. Then he drew his attention to his friends, all glancing at him curiously. " I think she´s right and I don´t say that because she´s my girlfriend".

" Then I wish you all a goodnight and see you tomorrow", Kyle took the hand of Tess and both walked back to the huge boulder, where they disappeared immediately, not even hearing the murmured replies.

Max meanwhile had successful convinced his girlfriend to go with him into the gym. He had prepared a small picnic in there, but didn´t want to spill his surprise to her. Alex and even Kyle had helped him a little with carrying everything inside and hooking up the electic things. Gazing at his sister and her boyfriend he wondered what they had planned for the night. " Are you both staying outside?", after he received a nod, he smiled at them. " Okay. See ya tomorrow", slowly guiding Liz, who winked at the other two, they both went away.

Alex turned his attention to the beautiful woman at his side. She was the best thing that ever happened to him. He didn´t know what he did right in his life, but he would forever be thankful for his reward. Usually the cheerleading types laughed at him or mocked him. But Isabel was different. She wasn´t just a breathtaking beauty on the outside, no she was more beautiful on the inside. Clasping her hand in his, he kissed the back of it softly. " Do you want to climb on a boulder with me? I know a really nice place where we can see the stars and nobody will disturb us".

" I would really love that", Isabel grinned at him happily. She didn´t know a spot where she wanted to be more than besides him. No matter where they went now, she would follow as long as he was there to hold her hand.

**Next day one hour before noon**

Larek and Nolak were in the armory, taking care of the last steps before they would head out. Both men were unusual quiet and hadn´t spoken since waking up that morning. The silence was heavily hovering over the whole base today. Everybody was nervous and some of soldiers excited. A few even had been so driven by hate towards Khivar that they couldn´t find sleep while their companions slept like babies. Larek had been tossing and turning on his uncomfortable bed, remembering the last time they had faced a battle and how that had turned out. He had smelt the scent of dead and blood in the air, felt the ice cold grip of loss and witnessed the downfall of the royal family. A few times he had woken up, covered heavily in sweat and a scream on his lips, which stuck strong in his throat, almost choking him. He didn´t want to be there when his friends would die for the second time, not after the short time he had to get them to know again. Contrary to Nolak, who had faith in his charges and he knew they would be more careful. Besides they had enough back up and a strong weapon up their sleeves if everything should fail. Not to mention the added bonus of a pissed off goddess on their hands. He believed that Maria would find her way to them again, after everything Khivar put her through she wouldn´t chicken out on the best opportunity they would ever have.

" Do you think they will make it this time?", Larek touched the laser sword Marianna had loved so much. It had been a present from her biological father when she joined the royal army and meant everything to her.

Nolak stopped loading the guns with bullets spiked with poison, which would slowly kill the enemy from the inside. Even if they wouldn´t murder their opponent with a shoot, they could always count on the poison to get to work. " Yes. I´m absolutely positive about that. Why? You´re starting to doubt them?".

Larek pulled his hand back from the sword and turned his attention to the cross bows. They had dissected the arrows so that they would destroy as much from the inside it could reach. As soon as they got in contact with something soft, barbs shot out and hooked themself with their spikes into organs. " It´s not that. But they´re just children. I mean don´t you think we expect too much from them?".

" We have prepared them as good as we could and their old enough to know what they´re doing. I know there will be always casualties in a war and maybe not everyone will survive it. But I don´t want to live under the reign of Khivar and his dumb idiots. Maybe you don´t like this planet very much, but I don´t want to see earth getting crushed under him and with that every human", okay Nolak hadn´t been happy to know that he got assigned to this world. But after all this years he grew to love it. Maybe it wasn´t as great as Antar had been, but it wasn´t so bad either. Well, there were still things he didn´t understand. Such things as why the politicians lived in such luxury while the rest of the people had to do everything to keep afloat, why women were so obsessed with shoes and clothes and why people tied themself in a marriage and yet slept with others?

Larek knew all this, he had seen them train. But despite their strength and their youth, they were just teenagers, getting thrown in a fight that was raging for centuries now. Michael had been having so much potential and he was lying dead in the hospital wing at the moment. Maria was so powerful that she didn´t even know how to handle all this energy and she was led from her anger. The last time she had done she and her friends died. " I´m just worried. Don´t listen to me right now".

Nolak laid an arm on the shoulder of his younger companion. They had been through so much. A war, the soft rock era, street kids battling each other with verbal fights which later was called Rap music, dance moves that looked more like a torture and they even survived the movie Titanic. Nothing would get them down so easily. If Celine Dion hadn´t killed them, nothing would. " I know how you feel. But this was meant to be. You read the same pages as me and you know that those kids can´t fight fate".

" I just wish we could do something to help", Larek was glad to be in the actual battle this time. But he wanted to do more, give everyone a guarantee to survive tomorrow. Unfortunately their hands were tied and all they could do was pray.

Nolak nodded his head, understanding what the younger man wanted to tell him. He had been having the same idea. But in the end, the small group of teenagers were on their own and no one could take their responsibility from them.

**Chapel near the armory**

Sean wasn´t a very religious man. But in the last few days he believed that something much more bigger than him was out there, guiding them and giving them challenges to see if they were strong enough. He saw his life that way. All his troubles, his fights and his rebellious way had brought him at this point. If he had been a good boy and a good son, he would never be here and be part of something greater, something that could change the world forever. Looking around the small dark room, just light with a few candles and a handfull benches, he knew that whoever was responsible for this, had to have a good reason for it. Kneeling on the ground and crossing himself, he started his prayer his mother taught him when he was a child. Tightly closing his eyes he chanted his words into the darkness around him, hoping that the big man above would hear him. After he was done, he opened his eyes again and looked up at the ceiling.

" Lord give me the strength to fight the enemy and to help me keep my family safe. I´m not the bravest person on this planet and usually I just bother with my own problems, but this time I need you to guide me, to give me the power to withstand everything. If I shouldn´t survive this day, please don´t send me into the hell fire, I´m allergic to extreme heat, ruins my teint. If I survive, I will be in church every Sunday with my family, I promise. Except I´ve got a date or the super bowl is on tv. Then not even you can drag me from home. If you accept my offer I want you to give me some sign".

Sean stopped speaking and listened intently for a whisper, a noise or something else. He even would have settled for a slight breeze, just a sort of reassurance. But nothing. The room stayed silent and calm. Sighing loud he stood up and looked at the cross hanging at the wall opposite him. Maybe he had been hoping too much from something that wasn´t tangible or easy to understand. But he had hoped for anything that would help him get rid of the strange feeling in his gut, like today was his last day on this earth or the apocalypse was near. Before he turned around he witnessed something so unbelievable that he wouldn´t buy it if anybody would tell him that. One of the candle shoot a flame almost to the ceiling for a few seconds and went into the normal state immediately, like nothing had happened. Grinning Sean glanced up. " Thanks. I knew I could count on you".

**Common room**

Isabel, Max, Liz and Alex were sitting at the table. Both couples held hands on it with their significant other and stared in their eyes. Silence was weighing down on them, the words to discribe their feelings were escaping them. There were probably nothing that could discribe it. It was every emotion mixed to a complete cocktail inside them. Everything they ever felt was in there, not one feeling was to discern from the other. Since waking up this morning nobody had been having the guts to eat a little bit. The night, despite being with their mates, hadn´t been an easy one. They had been having nightmares about soulless creatures, digging the heart of their friends or family out with his claws. The thing had been faceless and huge and extremly scary. All through the night they had awoken with a scream sticking in their throats. Thankfully they knew that no matter the outcome, everything would be over today.

" I don´t want you to go out there. I don´t want you to die", Liz couldn´t stand the silence any longer. She didn´t know how long they both had, but she didn´t want to spent it with this tension. Tears filled her eyes when she thought about the battle.

Max cupped her face with his hands and wiped the teardrops from her cheek with his thumbs. He was scared, too. But this was something he had to do. Not just because it was his destiny. No because he wanted to revenge his family, help Maria and actually do the right thing. He hadn´t chickened out the last time, he wouldn´t do it this time either. " I know and as much as I want to tell you that everything will be all right, I don´t know that. But all I can promise you is that I´ll be careful".

Liz put her hands on his and held it there for a while, enjoying his warmth and his strength. She didn´t know what he saw in her. He should be with someone like him, maybe someone like Maria or Tess. She was scared of her own shadows and usually slept with a closed window. And yet he wanted to be with her. " I will hold you to that".

" Don´t worry so much about me", Max bent over the table and pulled the face of her girlfriend closer. He wanted to taste her kiss a last time, in case he wouldn´t make it out alive. She had been the best thing that had happened in this life, she and finding the others and getting accepted to Harvard. Slowly he kissed her soft lips and thought about all the time they had spent. After a few seconds he pushed himself back and looked at her flushed but happy face. Awhile he enjoyed the expression, but then he sobered. " You have to promise me something. No matter what happens to me I want you to escape this base. If we should fail up there, I want you to take Alex and make a hasty retreat".

Liz shook her head. She didn´t want to think about that possibility, because it would mean he was dead and she didn´t want to even imagine it. She felt bad enough to be here in a safe distance while her friends were in the midst of the battle. " I don´t want to hear that. We will win. The good guys always win in the movies".

Max took her hand, which had been lying on the table and kissed her palm. He knew that she didn´t like the thought to lose someone close to her. But they had to count with everything. A war wasn´t aleays rational or fair. The better won, nothing more or nothing less. " But we´re not in a movie. This is real life and here the bad guys win most of the times. However it doesn´t mean we won´t put up a really good fight and try to take as much from them as possible with us".

" I just don´t wanna lose you. I love you too much", Liz had never had the urge to tell someone other than her best friends and her family that she loved them. But with Max it was different. She felt him so deep in her heart that she sometimes wondered how she lived before him.

Max smiled at her. No matter how many times she said that, he always felt special. Like the world was at his feet and he could walk over water. She was making him feel like he could do no wrong. Hopefully they survived so that he could make her his wife in the near future. Of course after they finished College. " I love you, too".

Isabel had tears in her eyes when she heard that. She hadn´t seen her brother so happy. Well concerning something not academically or astrology. She turned to Alex, still holding both of her hands in his and trying to find the right words. Unfortunately he just stared at her. " What is it?".

" I want to tell you so much, but I´m afraid it will sound stupid or corny or both", Alex had the words in his mind, it just was hard to get them out. Everything was so good when he thought it. But as soon as it left his mouth everyone laughed or shook their heads. He was so smart when it concerned Computers. Otherwise he was a real loser.

Isabel squeezed his hands, encouraging him to speak his mind. She didn´t care if it was stupid or corny, the main thing was it came from his heart. He was always trying to downplay himself. But he was the most honest, lovely and cutest person she knew. He had more to offer than every football player, playboy and poser together. " You can tell me everything. You should know that by now".

Alex breathed deeply in and out, hoping to calm his quickly beating heart. He was so sure that he would screw this thing with Isabel. She was such a wonderful woman and she could do better than him, much much better. And yet he was glad to have her in his life. Now he knew that not every beautiful girl was arrogant or bitchy. " I want you to know that I don´t regret one minute with you. I´m sorry to quote Jerry McGuire but you complete me. You´re the best thing and I´m in awe everyday that you choose to be with me. Geek boy. You saw something in me that made me feel like I was the most bravest hero on earth. You gave me a reason to stand up every morning and I pray every night to keep you just a little bit longer. You´re everything I ever wanted and more. Maybe we won´t have the chance to see the future, but then we see each other in our next life and hopefully we have more time".

" That was so beautiful and I feel the same way", Isabel paused for a moment. Her feelings were in the process to overwhelm her. Instantly Alex went around the table and sat besides her. Wrapping his arms around her pulled her tight into his embrace and stroked her head. At this point she started to cry. " I´m so scared. I´m afraid to never see you again and to never feel your calming presence and to never know how it feels to carry your child".

Alex tried to comfort her, although he was as scared as her, if not more. He was sitting down there and observed everything. She on the other hand was in the middle of it. He knew she was powerful and could kick ass, but this Khivar creature sounded very ruthless and seemed not to play fair. When Rath and Marianna hadn´t managed to destroy him, then nobody could. " Shh. We still have our memories. Nobody can take that away from us, not even the devil himself. Besides I heard to give birth is very painful and overrated anyway".

Isabel lifted her head lying at his chest and smiled at him through her tears. Carefully she stretched her head higher until her mouth covered his. For someone living in the virtual world, he knew how to kiss. When this was over she would have to remember to ask him from who he had learned that. Liz or Maria? Even though she would lean more towards the latter. After they had to part to breathe again, she snuggled tighter at his body and enjoyed the smell of his scent, which always calmed her. Like this they spent their last hour before the battle.

**Sick bay**

Kyle was sitting in the middle of the two beds his parents were in. Since leaving Tess this morning he was there and watched them, hoping for a miracle to happen. He wished his father would be here to tell him what he had to do. He felt like this war was too soon for him and he wasn´t strong enough to fight. But on the other hand he knew that he had to help and it would be something his father would expect from him. He always gave him a speech about responsibility and until now he hadn´t realized what it meant. Besides Maria still hadn´t made an appearance and he was worried that she would bail, even though he knew that she would never do that. And yet it was almost time to face the music and his sister was nowhere to be seen. Rath had been awol, too. Tess said that he was probably searching for Maria and would bring her back with him. Rubbing his face Kyle felt all his nerves starting to tingle and the knot in his stomach to tighten. His hands were sweating like crazy and his heart was thumping hard against his ribcage.

" Buddha help me. Give me the courage to stand my ground and reward my patience with success. Let my family stay healthy and bring me back my sister. Protect everyone I care about and don´t let them lose their faith. Guide me through the toughest assigment you have given me until now. Stay at my side and give me the strength to fight for this town and the people in it. Don´t let me fail my task".

Looking at the peaceful faces of his parents, he stood up to give them both a kiss on their foreheads before heading out and seeing after his cousin.

**Next door**

Tess was kneeling besides the cold metal table her brother was on. She was freezing pretty hard, because the room she was in was something like a cooling chamber to keep Michael from decomposing. Larek thought it was better to wait with the funeral until after the battle. She even hadn´t been having the guts to call her grandfather to tell him about the death of his grandson. It was like the loss of her twin would be real when she said it out loud or told it other people outside the group of friends. She didn´t want it to be so final. Maybe they hadn´t tried everything and there was still a chance to safe him. Holding his cold, lifeless hand in her own she made an attempt to send him some of her life force. Unfortunately the link between them was none existent anymore and she finally noticed how much she needed it now that it was gone. If she would have known that she would lose him so soon, she would have never complained about the connection, at least not so often. Trying to keep her tears at bay she watched his beautiful face, frozen in time with a content expression.

" I´ll miss you. Yeah I know strange coming from me. I always bitched about you being constantly near me or at my side. And now I want nothing more than you waking up and annoy me with your rude presence. I often made you angry just to have a conversation with you, because you´re not exactly the most outspoken person. I have to admit, I had been jeaulous when I saw you with Maria. You were so open with her. You never did that with me. But now I know that you didn´t do it on purpose and in a weird way I always knew your emotions before anyone else. We´re the same even if I was the better looking twin", she tried for a small smile, but it didn´t work. Swallowing the tight lump in her throat she looked at the ceiling to find the grit to continue her speech. Breathing evenly she turned her attention back to her brother. " I hope your happy wherever you are. Maybe you have the chance to give us a sign that you´re well. Keep your protective hands over us and especially over Maria. She´s taking your death really hard right now and I think she´s at a point where it´s make or break. I want you to help her, give her a nudge in the right direction. And take care that she get´s her safe and sound. I don´t think Kyle would survive another loss at this point. I love you, even if I haven´t said it as much as I should have and I know grandpa had loved you, too. Look after yourself and someday we´ll see each other again. Hopefully it´s not so soon".

After checking that she hadn´t left anything out and told him everything she had on her mind, she kissed his freezing cheek and walked out of the room. Larek had instructed them to be in the armory half an hour before they would go up. As soon as the door closed behind her, another person stepped out from its hiding place and walked up to the bed.

" Please forgive me. But I don´t belong in this world".

**20 minutes before the showdown**

Every men and every woman was in their amor, ready to face the enemy. Some were eagerly jumping up and down while others held tightly on their weapons. The long hallway was filled until the last place with soldiers. The tension was so thick that it could have been cut with a knife or better a chainsaw. The worst part was the waiting and it didn´t get better knowing that the elevator just could take 10 persons at time, which would take them a lot of time. But it was decided that the royal members, their friends as well as Nolak and Larek would be the first to go up. Nervously the mentioned group went inside the cubicle and pushed the button. The silence was almost choking and everybody was glad to step outside into the fresh air. But as soon as they saw what awaited them, they weren´t so sure if they shouldn´t get back again, because in front of them were standing a dozen tanks, a few helicopters, hundreds of armed soldiers and at least four jeeps with big guns strapped on their roofs. And everyone had their weapons directed at them.

TBC


	66. Chapter 66

**Chapter 64 The final battle**

Nolak and Larek were the first to react to the obvious threat from the human army. They both immediately put up their hands and were ready to blast around if they had to. The others behind them were clearly undecided if they should surrender or follow the example of their leader and prepare themself to fight them, too. Well, except Sean of course, he was already stepping besides the older man and held his laser sword high in the air, more than happy to kick someones ass, even if it wasn´t exactly the someone he had thought. But fighting was fighting, it didn´t matter who it was. At least in his books. Kyle tried to hold his cousin back, because they weren´t sure if those men were against them or with them. They should wait and see where they stood and then decide what to do. Tess, Max and Isabel finally choose to stand united in front of the military wheelers to show them that they wouldn´t intimidate them so easily. Besides they weren´t alone, what they noticed as soon as the door to the elevator opened and more people stepped out. Suddenly a small person jumped from one of the helicopters hovering slightly above the ground and whirling dust around. Surprised they saw that it was no one other than Maria herself, running towards them.

" Don´t shoot. They´re here to help us".

Instantly everybody minus Sean relaxed their fighting stance and breathed out with ease, glad to know that their missing friend hadn´t abandoned them and was pretty much unhurt. Kyle even pushed everyone out of his way and met her halfway. For a moment all gasped when he slapped her cheek and then embraced her. They expected an explosion on the part of Maria, but she just held onto him like a drowning woman. Her expression was apologetic and relieved. She seemed to be happy to see her friends alive and complete. Smiling brightly she took the hand of her brother and walked in the direction of the others.

Kyle wasn´t finished with her and he let out all his anger for keeping them in the suspense so long and worrying them to no end. " Don´t you dare do that again or I will be very pissed at you".

" I´m sorry, but I had things to do and I had to do it alone. As you can see I´m unharmed and heavily guarded from those nice men", she pointed with her thumb behnd her, where the army was still standing. Not one of them moved an inch, even when the air blew in their face.

Nolak shook his head at his most reckless member. Actually he should get mad at her, because for one she had been putting herself at risk by going into a base of human soldiers trained to eliminate alien threats or supposed alien threats and two for almost giving him a heartattack and leaving him alone with Larek. Unfortunately it wouldn´t get anywhere, she was just like that and not even he could change that. " How could you do that? You could have gotten killed or worse".

Maria chuckled at the older man, knowing that he wasn´t as angry as he wanted her to believe. He still thought he had to look after them, especially her. He had been at her side since...She couldn´t even remember it, just that it had been a pretty long time. And he saw her die more time than he wanted. " I had to try it, even if they would have killed me in the process. I was fully aware of that, but if you want to admit it or not, we need their help".

" Why do I even try to put any sense in your brain? You obviously do what you want without thinking about the consequences", Nolak threw his arms in the air and stalked back to take care of the many men stepping out of the elevator. At least at that he could still help.

Larek could barely hold his laughter in when he joined the siblings, both looking amused themself. " I don´t know why he´s so grouchy, he should know you better. After all he´s at your side for a really long time and I´m sure you weren´t any different than you´re now".

Kyle nodded his head in agreement. He couldn´t imagine his sister quiet, following orders given her or subordinate to someone else. She had been probably a hell of a woman in every lifetime, no matter who she represented. " Fat chance of that. I think trouble maker is like her middle name".

" Ha Ha. Are you both through with mocking me? In case you´ve forgotten we´re in the midst of the biggest battle Roswell will ever see", Maria rolled her eyes at them before turning around to have a little chat with the General again. She wanted to go through everything once more while they still had time.

Larek watched her walking away angrily. Women, he never would understand them. Thank god that Corly was different. Speaking of her, where was she? Scanning the many people standing around he looked for a blonde head. Finding her slightly apart from the rest he went to her. They had been having not so much time to talk in the last few days and he had things to tell her before it was too late.

Kyle stared after them for a few seconds until he noticed a small and soft hand slipping in his. Smiling he looked down in the beautiful blue eyes of his girlfriend. He was glad to have met her, even if their life should end today, he wouldn´t be sad, because he had loved and had been loved in return from such wonderful person. " This is it now. Today we´ll see if the movies are lying with the good guys always winning or if they told the truth".

" Yeah. Strangly I´m not as scared as I should be. The only thing I feel is anger and pain and I wish Michael would be here with us", Tess knew that if she should survive this war, she would probably cry for weeks and mourn properly. If that shouldn´t be the case, she would be meeting him again anyway. But now she just tried to keep the flame of revenge burning brightly

Kyle had been thinking the same about his parents, although he was glad that they were out of harms way. But he would be calmer if he knew they were alright and healthy, waiting at the base for the return of their children. His father would have told him some of his wisdom or gave a speech about duty or something. Well, he would give everything to hear that now. Pulling his girlfriend closer, he sighed loud. " I know what you mean".

Tess laid her head on his chest and listened to strong drumming of his heart. It was oddly comforting. But suddenly a new sound penetrated her ear and it had nothing to do with Kyle. Startled she lifted her gaze and saw something opening up in the middle of the desert. It seemed to be like a black hole. " What is that?".

Everybody stopped what they were doing and watched the hole widening. Loading their weapons, drawing their swords and lifting their arrows, every soldier was preparing themself to start firing. Maria left her place by the General and walked to her brother and Tess. Within seconds Max, Sean, Larek, Corly and Nolak joined them as well while the antarian warrior stepped behind them like a wall. Curiously they all witnessed an older man with grey hair and dark cold eyes coming out of the thing. His expression was a mix between happiness and anger while his aura seemed to freeze the desert.

Corly stepped immediately besides Maria and took her hand, to give the younger girl her support. For the first time she saw her real father from a close position and she was glad to haven´t grown up with him. She had pity with her sister, who had to endure so many years with the coldhearted bastard. " I´m here. Don´t let his presence scare you".

" I´m not scared. I´m beyond any emotion towards this monster", Maria was sure that she wouldn´t get old enough to regret not killing him sooner, but she promised herself that she would do everything in her power to take him with her. And if she had to destroy Roswell in the process.

Khivar walked calmly in the direction of the small group standing united like a front in the middle of the desert. If he had a soul he would have laughed or shown some other expression. Unfortunately he had sold it a thousand years ago. " What do we have here? Is this the reception commitee or is there a loser meeting I´m not aware of?".

Sean was in the process to dash off with his sword held high in the air and an angry cry on his lips when Maria restrained him with a wave of her hand. She turned to him and her glance told him that this bastard was hers and nobody would lay their hands on him, except her. " I didn´t know you possessed any kind of humour? Not that you´re funny. But your attempt had something. It was a little bit shaky at the start, the middle part and the end. A few years and maybe you can go on stage with your own program".

" Maybe we can do something together", Khivar stopped in front of the girl brave enough to stand up to him. If he wouldn´t hate her so much, he would have admired her spunk. But too bad that she was on the wrong side and had to die. Again. " Oh sorry I forgot. You won´t survive this day".

Maria took a step forward until she was as close to the soulless creature that had haunted her waking moments as well as her dreams without really touching him. Anger was pouring out of her in waves and her eyes darkened. Instantly her friends knew that the goddess Nemetona was lurking and waiting for her appearance. " Be warned. I will take you with me this time. Count on it".

Khivar noticed that the air prickled with many mixed emotions and something shifted in the young girls aura. She seemed to be colder and more dangerous. It felt deadly and old. He had never sensed so much energy humming around him. Well except for his own power that was. " Is that a promise or a threat? I don´t think you can´t do much damage. You´re just a human with a little alien powers. I don´t think I have to fear you, little missy".

" I wouldn´t be so sure in your position. I´m not as weak as you think I am. But you will feel it soon and I will enjoy every minute of it", Maria was through with being afraid of him. She wasn´t Marianna anymore, a girl that had been too desperate to please her supposed father that she hadn´t noticed how cruel and disgusting he had been in reality.

Khivar chuckled amused, liking her spirit. She was so different from her past self. Sure she thought she was strong and powerful in both lifes and she had a mind of her own, but other than that she was another person. Someone he even could have liked. Grasping her chin in his hands he pulled her face closer to his. " It will be a pleasure for me to see you die again. And this time it will be my hands doing it".

Maria pushed him hard away from her. She shuddered at the fact that he had touched her with his filthy hands, hands that have killed the people she had loved, hands that gave orders to make her life a living hell. " You wish, old man".

" We´ll see who´s the last man standing", Khivar turned his back on her and went towards the strange hole, which was still open but not so big like before. He waved his hand over it and within seconds it was gone. Then he lifted his hand in the air with his fist pointing upwards for a while before he whirled around and grinned at the young group of children.

Everyone was stunned when hundreds and hundreds of armed soldiers marched from the distant in their direction. The trampling of their feet was heard for miles and shook the ground slightly. Strangly they all carried human weapons instead of the ones created on Antar. Stunned Maria noticed the unusual looking belt on them with something hanging down on it that appeared to be eggs. When they stopped behind their king, she squinted her eyes and noted that there weren´t eggs but hand grenades. A little worried she glanced over her shoulder at the tanks and the jeeps with the big guns. Okay, they had a small advantage even if it wasn´t that much. Turning around she drew her attention back to the man ruining every lifetime and glared at him while he returned it with the same intensity. Both standing opposite each other with their army at their back, waiting to attack. Time seemed to be standing still, the noise if the helicopters vanished while a slight breeze blowed around them. Suddenly Khivar raised his hand and shot a blast at Maria, who expected it already and dodge it with a blast of her own. After that everyone started shooting, fighting and swinging their swords. Loud sounds of guns, the strange noise when the laser swords crashed against each other and cries from men was heard. Here and there bombs or missiles from the tanks shook the ground under their feet while the battle was raging without anyone noticing it.

Sean was in the midst of everything, striking every guy playing for the other team. Sometimes he stabbed them and other times he either beheaded or cut off some body part. The smile on his face and the twinkling in his eyes showed that he enjoyed himself, even though he wasn´t such an aggressive person any longer. Unfortunately for those bastards they fucked with the wrong people and he didn´t take it lightly when someone targetted his family. The rage inside him felt like an old friend and he was more than happy to give into his darker feelings. It had been a long time since he could work it off like that. And he noticed that the years being a hard ass had its perks, because he was really good with fighting. A few times he scanned his surroundings to look where Kyle and Maria were. But he couldn´t see them in the mass of fighting men. Thankful he knew that they both could hold their own water and were probably the last of this bunch needing any kind of help.

Meanwhile Tess and Isabel were using their gifts to take the powers of their opponent and adept it against them, a neat little trick they had from Larek. He thought it would be more their thing, seeing as they had the most mental powers in contrast to the warlike powers of the guys. And they had been warned that their enemies were mindreader, who probably were better at using their mental strength in such a chaos, whereas they would have to fight against soldiers, the noise around them and keep themself from getting shot at. But surprisingly both girls held on pretty good and could easily stiff anyone coming their way while battling off arrows and bullets flying towards them. Pain and rage was fuelling their energy level and they were adamant to take out as much of this motherfers as they could. They had promised that they wouldn´t go down without even giving their best and at least without killing most of the enemies. If they should die, they would take care that the others would rotting in hell for a very long long time.

On the other side of the battlefield Max swung his laser sword around like he had been born with it in his hand. It was like Rath had taken over his body and gave him the skills as well as the strength. Besides it hadn´t hurt that he had been hitting the gym two times a week before he even knew about his alien origin. The added bonus of muscles wasn´t so bad after all, although he wouldn´t need it. His powers were enough, but he wanted to save them for when they were really needed. He remembered the last time he had been in a battle like that. Ava and his parents had been dead, Larek together with the scientist underground and Marianna, Vilandra and Rath fighting at his side. He had felt right at that moment, standing united with these people against their enemies and doing the right thing. And this time it felt the same. He knew that this was meant to be, the place where he should be, his fate. Stabbing a man coming his way, he was sure that his parents above him would be proud, just as his parents down here would be. He was never a fighter, he had been more keeping in the background and using his communication talent to take care of things. But that was before he had been scared to lose his family and his friends. Strange how a perspectives can change when lifes are threatened. He never thought he would hold a weapon in his hands and yet he mastered the laser sword like a Rockstar his guitar, with ease and confidence.

Kyle had all hands full with keeping himself alive and making sure that the guys against them wouldn´t see the next day. Considering his human state he was doing a pretty great job at it. He was shooting with his laser gun like a pro, which wasn´t such a surprise as son of the sheriff. He had been taught to shoot from a far distance from his father before he learned to go on the toilette alone. It was easier for him to get familiar with a gun than a sword, even though he got offered that of his sister. But he thought she would need it and he wouldn´t feel good to take something from her away. Although he knew that she probably could do more damage with her powers than with a weapon. And yet he worried about her more than every other of the group. Here and there he glanced at Maria to be sure that she was holding on. Everytime he was relieved to see that she was still in good shape and raising hell without something to defend herself, except her powers. His chest swelled with pride when he thought about standing side by side with such a wonderful and caring person. Well, at least when she wasn´t fighting with someone.

In the meantime Larek and Nolak did their best to keep their charges in sight and combat against Khivars people at the same time. They took turns using their powers and their laser swords, which would save them enough energy througout this battle and they wouldn´t get exhausted so easily like their opponents. As soon as they would notice that their strength was on a low, they changed to their weapons until their strength was back again in full force. They could at least buy some time with their tactic and maybe tired their enemies out before giving them the kiss of death. Larek noted for the first time what he made wrong in his last life. He had thought he had to shift his focus on his powers, although in reality he should have put it into his physically fitness like Rath had done it. His formerly best friend hadn´t counted too much on his mental force, but his body shape. He had trained his muscles every day and even if he had died, he had done enough damage to the other army. Something Larek wouldn´t have managed, at least then. Now he had more knowledge and had been having enough time to built muscles. All right, they weren´t as visible and he would never be a Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he knew that he was strong and that made all the difference. Nolak besides him was the same. He thought he was too old for this crap, but in his heart he reached the perfect age for it. What he failed in power, he would make up with wisdom and experience, something the younger generation still had to aquire. He had been fighting for a really long time and he waited more than twice as much for this moment. If they both would survive this day, they would finally start living their life.

The human army was surprisingly keeping up with their more advanced alien allies. They shoot what ran in front of their barrels, sometimes unsure if they hit friend or foe. It was hard to make a difference betweent the good guys and the bad. The General was just sure that Brody, Maria, Kyle and their friends were on their side. But everything else was just speculation. Most of the time they could make out who they had to kill and who not, because those skins had strange empty eyes. Like there wasn´t a soul in their borrowed human bodies, in contrast to the other people from out of space. They were showing emotions like rage and pain, even disgust. With little to no effort the humans minimized the number of skins dramatically. But instead of getting smaller and smaller, they seemed to be getting more after a while. It was like the more they killed the more came. Surprisingly they just appeared out of nowhere. Thankfully the soldiers didn´t give up and tried harder to kill them, even if they knew that it may be pointless in the end. However they knew their part on the plan Maria had told them and they would stick to it until they got the sign from the girl. They just all hoped that it would work or their world would be screwed.

A little secluded from the main battle, Khivar and Maria stood opposite each other, glaring and itching to finish this fight for once and for all. Both circled around the other in hopes to catch them unprepared and having a slight advantage. Unfortunately they were more alike than they wanted to admit and all they did was walking around.

" That´s ridiculous. One more round and I will throw up", Maria had enough from their little game. She was pregnant after all and couldn´t stand something upsetting her stomach additional to her usual nauseas.

Khivar stopped his feet and stared at her cockily. He knew that she wasn´t up to a little foreplay. It wasn´t fun to just attack someone, he enjoyed the taunting at the beginning and the fear in his enemies eyes, although Maria didn´t seem to be the kind of girl who was afraid of him. " What´s up? You want to give up already?".

Maria rubbed her belly and wondered if the small ones would notice it if she should die. Or if they noticed anything right now at all. She was a bad mother and her children weren´t even born yet. But maybe she would get a new chance in her next life, because she would find rest when she killed her nemesis. " Are you kidding me? I haven´t even started yet. I´m just a little bit too eager to get it on. You know I do have a real life apart from this madness".

" You´re so different from your mother. She was always afraid of me and rightly so. Did you know that she never made a sound when I raped her? She just stared at the ceiling and waited until I was done with her", Khivar knew that most people had a weakness hidden somewhere. Thankfully he knew hers. She hadn´t really handled the death of her mother through his hands and he loved the shocked expression on her face, how it turned to something darker. Pain, disgust and fury was clearly shining in her eyes.

Maria couldn´t believe it. That bastard was more cruel than she had thought and it had been really bad without knowing that he forced himself on her mother. She fought against the urge to spew her breakfast on him. Already the imagination was making her sick to her stomach. " Shut up. Mother never deserved you. I´m so glad that she´s dead and could escape your evil clutches, you monster".

Khivar witnessed her eyes changing its color. They turned from green to black and then to red. It was a pleasure to see her trying to repress her dark side. He wondered how long she could endure that without losing the fight. " I´m curious if your human mother will be quiet, too when I´m taking her. If your human father will try to stop me, although it would be pointless, because he´s no match for me".

" You´re keeping your disgusting hands of my family!", Maria´s breathing was harsher and quicker. Sweat was slowly forming on her forehead while her heart was pumping adrenaline and blood in strong intervalls through her veins and made it harder for her to keep herself in check.

Khivar laughed about her puny efforts to stay in control. He would take care that she would play in his hands. She wasn´t so resistance against his comments like she thought she was, as he saw on the wrinkles on her face from the strain to not let the beast in her loose. She had closed her eyes, which made it a little bit harder for him to see which color they had right now. " Too bad that you´re cute little human sister is already dead. She was probably a screamer".

Maria opened her eyes and they were dark red. Within seconds her human form disappeared and Marianna took her place. Gazing heatedly at the creature in front of her, she let her arms drop at either side of her body with fire coming out of the palm of her hands. Playing with the small hot ball she watched the flames licking up her forearm without hurting her. Looking up she shoot the fireballs so fast that Khivar was thrown on the ground from the force. Calmly walking in his direction she stopped besides his fallen body to glance down at him. " I told you. LEAVE MY FAMILY OUT OF THIS".

" You think you can stop me? You´re really demented", Khivar jumped on his feet so quickly that Maria hadn´t eve the chance to react. Seconds later she was in a chokehold from him with his body tightly pressed against her own. Bending his head closer to her ear he whispered hotly in it. " Can you imagine how much I will enjoy draining the life out of you? How aroused that makes me?".

Marianna had a really good guess, because the evidence was poking her backside and made her uncomfortable. Even if they weren´t related to each other it felt still wrong. After all she grew up for a very long time thinking he was her father, she couldn´t forget that. Unfortunately. With a fast jolt she grasped his arm and threw him over her shoulder until his face was touching the floor. She had his right arm twisted on his back and was pressing with her weight on it. " Don´t you dare even think about me in that way. You disgust me, you sick bastard"

Khivar liked the pain and couldn´t describe the sense it was giving him. He didn´t have such a pain limit most people or aliens had. He savoured the feeling of the rough handling. No wonder his wife had never managed to satisfy him. " Do it a little bit harder and maybe twist my arm in the other direction".

" Don´t provoke me", Marianna was tempted to take his arm and rip it from its socket. But after his last comment, he would enjoy that too much and she wanted to let him suffer. Suffer for her mother, her second family, her baby sister and Michael. All this people were dead because of him. Even though she was partly at fault with that, he was, too. Gripping his hand tightly she turned his wrist around until she heard bones snapping loudly. " How does it feel? Huh? How does it feel to be under me, you retarded monster!".

Khivar huffed out of breath and sand was blowing up in his face. Although he hated to admit it, that had hurt. Not so much that he was close to faint, but it had been pretty noticeable. Now he should finally act or she would really kill him. He had underestimated her badly. She wasn´t so sensitive like he thought. Using his powers he rolled his body around, got his broken arm out of her grasp and shot a powerful blast at her, which propelled her a few feet in the air. A while it seemed like she was flying. Until she landed with a strong crash on the hard floor and raised dust around her. Khivar stood up from the ground and shook his hurt arm, which appeared to repair itself in seconds at that. Then he went to Marianna to check the damage he caused her. When he was close he kneeled besides her and took her pain grimacing face in his hands. Blood was pouring out of her mouth while her eyes were disorientated staring at him. " That´s for pissing me off, little girl. From now on we will fight properly".

" I´m okay with that", Marianna stepped out from the dust and surprised him. Not just he and his lackey´s had really good mindwarping powers, she had picked a few things from Tess. She almost had to laugh at his stunned expression when he realized that she wasn´t lying at his feet, but standing in front of him, unhurt and mayorly pissed. Kicking him in his chins, she waited until he was half in the air when she blasted him away. Smiling she followed after him and wondered who would be winning this time.

Sean was slowly losing his power, because the sword seemed to be weighting a ton and was close to drop on the ground. He felt a strain at places he didn´t know could hurt and a few times he was hit from knifes, which cut into his arms and one left a scratch on his cheek. A bullet grazed his shoulder and took a small part of his uniform with it. Thankfully it wasn´t anything serious yet and he was still alive. But he didn´t know how long it would stay that way with his rapidly sinking energy. Seeing a young man storming into his direction with a samurai sword, he scraped together his last strength and lifted his weapon, too. Hoping that he was strong enough to withstand the blow that would be coming he braced his feet hard on the ground and held the sword tightly in his hands. Seconds later the blades made a strange sound when they crashed against each other. For a moment both men held eye contact while trying to intimidate their opponent with their glare.

" Bastard. You think you´re the shit! Making an attempt to kill my family and you think I will just sit by and watch it. You´re wrong, martian", pulling his weapon back, he whirled aside and waited until the guy was stumbling forward before bashing his ellbow in his back to make him drop like a stone on the ground. Without giving the other man a chance to defend himself, Sean took the sword and rammed it forcefully in his body. The cry that followed was full of anguish and suffering, but it didn´t take long before the voice died down and the sand around the man was turning red. Sean pulled his weapon out and spit on the corpse. " That´s for messing with my family. And remember never fk with a DeLuca". Wiping sweat from his forehead he turned around to take another soldier. Unfortunately he never stood a chance to react to the sword coming towards him. Before he knew what was happening the blade made contact with his flesh and cut deep around the place of his right eye and even hurt it in the process. Blood was pouring from the wound and he immediately dropped his weapon to cover the injury with it. A few seconds later he dropped on his knees, as the strenght left him. He looked at the jerk hurting him with his one good eye for a minute, but he couldn´t make out something. His surroundings were a blur for him. And then everything went dark around him and he fell over.

Kyle just finished with killing two skins at once, when he saw his cousin going down. Instantly he fought his way towards him. Not looking where he was going or who was standing in his way he shoot wildly around. He had to get to Sean and either help him or at least get him out of harms way. Glancing at the enemy standing above his cousin and being close to finish the job, he ordered his feet to run quicker. But he knew that no matter how fast he would be, he would be too late.

" Noooo".

Stretching his arm out he tried to stop the motherfer to kill Sean. Surprisingly a blast was shooting from his palm and let the enemy fly through the air like an eagle for a few metres before he landed with a loud thud on the dusty earth. Stunned and a little scared Kyle made his way to Sean to see if he was still alive. Kneeling besides his cousin he turned the body around and cringed when he saw the many blood pouring out of the wound which stretched from the hairline to his jaw. The eye wasn´t there anymore, at least not visible under the amount of blood and dirt sticking on the face. But before he could feel for a pulse, he sensed someone approaching from behind. Jumping on his feet, he whirled around to shoot whoever was coming his way. Unfortunately he hadn´t even the time to do that before a blast caught him and launched him with full force at the nearest rock. Lifeless he slumped on the floor and stayed there.

Tess, having abandoned the idea to fight with the enemy with her mental powers, because she needed too much energy to keep it up, was wielding the sword she found lying around, when she witnessed her boyfriend crashing against the rock. Horrofied she gasped loudly, which attracted the attention of Isabel, who had snatched the crossbow from some soldier and was in the process to decrease the numbers of enemies. Worriedly the taller girl left her place and went instantly to her smaller friend.

" What is it?".

Tess shook her head shocked, tears filling her eyes and a knot had formed in her throat. She couldn´t believe it, she just watched her boyfriend getting killed. Lifting her hand to her mouth to keep herself from making a sound, she glanced at the girl besides her. " Kyle. He´s...he...and then...rock...and now he´s lying there motionless".

Isabel kept her surroundings in her sight, always on guard and looking for any attacks while at the same time trying to console her friend. " Maybe he´s just unconscious?".

" I don´t think so", Tess saw the amount of force Kyle had been flung at the solid surface, no one would have survived that collisation and especially not a human boy. Suddenly a small black object landed at her feet and startled her out of her thoughts. Bending down to eye it closer, she realized that it was a hand grenade. " This thing will explode every second", gripping the other girls arm both dash away from the dangerous object. Seconds later the earth shook with the explosion and the two were knocked down from the shockwave. Not one of them moved afterwards.

Max observing his friend and his sister crashing on the ground broke out in a run, not even caring about his safety. Hoping he prayed that it was not as bad as he thought. He didn´t want to tell his parents that their only daughter was dead. Not to mention the pain it would cause Mr. Dupree to hear about the loss of both of his grandchildren. Using his protective shield to dodge the blows thrown his way, he pushed everyone from his path. Nobody and nothing would stop him from getting to his sister. Here and there he swung his sword to every side in rage about the imagination to lose his twin. If one of the girls was harmed, there would be hell to pay.

" You bastards. I´m going to enjoy seeing you suffer before killing you".

Max dropped his head and stormed towards a beefy looking skin. Even if he would go down, he would make sure that he wasn´t the only one. Taking the drive from his sprint he rammed his head in the belly of the other man with the brunt of a truck and swept him off of his feet with it. Then he stuck his sword so deep in the other body that it was pinned on the ground. Smiling satisfied at the dying light in the skins eyes, he kicked him once more before moving further. Unfortunately he was so busy with watching the front that he didn´t see that someone was coming from the back and striked out with an iron rod. Before Max knew what was happening the hard pole hit him on the head and darkness engulfed him.

Nolak and Larek noticed the people dropping like flies around them. Seeing all those brave and strong people lying on the sandy ground, lifeless and unmoving, they realized that it was happening again. The war would be their downfall once more. Destiny would become real and the earth was doomed, because nobody on this planet would be powerful enough to stand against Khivar and beat him. All they had right now was the comfort that Maria was still alive and fighting her worst nightmare. But as soon as she would notice the corpses of her friends and her family, she would either go berserk or lose all her hope and follow everyone else in another level. Well both hoped that she would surprise everyone and finally grow into her role as supernatural force and the goddess of war that was living inside her soul for so long. Too bad that they hadn´t been having the time to tell her about the weapon stored within one cavern of the big rock. It could have been a real good help for her. But they were forbidden to meddle into fate and with that change the future. The book had said that a sacrifice would save them this time, but not who should do it and how it should be done. Nights and nights both men had mulled over the damn book to find a solution or even a loophole in the freaking thing. But they found nothing and now the destiny of this planet was sealed. Either the humans would be slaves for Khivar and his men or they would be all killed to make place for the aliens. However not everything was lost yet and they still could change something, even if it wouldn´t maybe make a difference, but they tried it at least. Larek pulled together the last remaining of his strength and was in the process to give his all when an arrow flew through his torso and left a small hole at the place where his heart was. Stunned he glanced at Nolak before losing his footing and falling down all the while holding his hand over the bleeding wound.

" Kill them. Kill those bastards".

Nolak watched sadly his long friend and companion closing his eyes and he felt a rage climbing up from his inside that he never thought he was capable of. Taking his sword he let out a loud cry that attracted the attention of several skins. Angrily he stormed towards them and his powers was so out of control that everyone coming in contact with him was shredded or went up in flames. He never knew strong he really was and what he could do until now. No matter what everyone thought, he saw those kids as his own and everybody hurting them was fing with him. Unfortunately he wasn´t so gingerly in that departement and was gladly taking care of this business. Suddenly something hard hit him in his back and he noticed his feet leaving the ground. The next thing he felt was unbearable pain in his back from when he collided with something solid. And then absolutely nothing while everything went black.

The General of the human army stared unbelievable at the scene playing in front of him. The best fighters just got put away like it was nothing. Even with their strong alien powers they had nothing to set against those skins while most of the human soldiers still stood their ground. But he knew that it wouldn´t take much longer until the aliens would take full force on them. At least when all their enemies were dead. A few of his men had stepped besides Maria to help her, considering her delicate state. But even from afar he saw that she wasn´t interested, she wanted to take care of that alone. After knowing the history of those two, he wasn´t so surprised. If anyone would have killed the people he loved, made his life hell and then killed him, he would wanted to finish it alone, too. He admired her fire and she would make a damn fine warrior, if not commander. Someone his men could look up to and take as an example. She had been through so much, lost so many beloved ones and still she was standing, trying to revenge them. She was truly a goddess of war in every way possible. Watching her taking every hit without showing any emotion and dishing out just the same, he knew that there were still people who thought honour and family was still things to fight for. And he was proud to be part of that, to be here at this time and place to witness it.

Marianna was close to collapse any minute. Her energy was dwindling really fast now and she felt her legs were on the brink to fail their duty. She had nothing more to give now, she had given her all to destroy Khivar. But every blow she had dished out hadn´t seemingly mattered to him, he hadn´t even made an impression like it had hurt him. Even if she managed to inflict a wound on him it had closed within seconds and she was still trying to find his weak spot, which was difficult when you had to defend yourself at the same time. She thought she could make a difference this time, because she had the power of three people inside her body. But obviously it wasn´t enough and she would let the others down again. Hopefully she was the first one biting the dust and not the other way around. She didn´t want to be present when Roswell would perish and with it a lot of people she had known and loved. Gathering the last remaining of her strength she strained herself to built the most powerful blast ever. If that wouldn´t work, she was finally throwing the towel forever. She had thought about using the granilith, but she didn´t even know where it was and how she had to handle the thing. So all she had was this one last attempt. Watching the air around her starting to crackle with energy, the wind to pick up speed and the sand circling her body, she knew that this was it now. Closing her eyes she let loose. Feeling the strength leaving her body she crashed on her knees, not even opening her eyes to see if she had hit Khivar or not. She was past the point of caring. She was done and now it was up to the others to save this planet and the people on it. Until suddenly a voice rang out.

" Don´t you dare killing her again you gutless bastard. You have to go through me first".

At that Marianna did open her eyes. Stunned she witnessed Corly standing protectively in front of her, the back turned to her and her right arm outstretched. Khivar was mimicking her stance, but didn´t attack her. At least not immediately. He seemed to be surprised to see the girl. " Out of my way. That´s something between me and her".

Corly didn´t budge from her spot and shook her head at the older man. If she would be sure that he would be playing fair she would have crossed her arms over her chest for emphasis. But unfortunately she knew him too well to be aware of his corrupt character. " Not anymore. You deal with me now. Father".

" What did you call me?", Khivar hated to be out of the loop and especially in such matters. Did that little girl try to trick him or was there something he missed? Thinking about his vast numbers of affairs while married, he thought it could be possible to have more offspring, aside from Nicolai. But her? She wasn´t even the slightest like him, contrary to Marianna, who wasn´t even his real daughter.

Corly smiled unashamedly at him, liking the fact that she had him so nicely distracted for the moment. She just hoped that she could stall long enough for Maria to charge her battery so that they both could end Khivar and this war. " I called you father. I´m sorry to drop that bomb so unexpectedly onto you, but I´m your daugther. And you have done your last breaths here on this planet".

Khivar was stunned into silence for a few seconds before he started to laugh at the young girl claiming to be from him. It was a scary sound and surprised him more than anybody else. That had to be a joke, anything else was out of the question. But he had to give her credit, because she pulled it off really well without showing any sign of lying. " You´re pretty good, I have to give you that", making a fist with his hand he stared hard at her. Within seconds she dropped on the ground while holding her throat and trying to get air in her lungs. " But not good enough for me".

" Leave her alone!", Marianna had found some strength to jump to her feet and ram her body at that of Khivar. Both landed with a bruising force on the floor, while she fell directly on him, accidently. She knew that it was just a matter of time before her body striked his job, but until then she would everything in her powers to protect her family. Pushing her ellbow at his throat she threatend to crush his windpipe if he should make a wrong move, even though she knew that it was pointless.

Khivar chuckled at the desperate attempt to scare him. He was beyond that for a long long time. Too bad that this girl hadn´t learned her lessons times and times again. It wasn´t the first time that they fought with each other. Just with the difference that she didn´t remember it while he could picture every battle they had. It was never a pretty sight, but he enjoyed it every time. " Do you think that will help? In case you haven´t noticed I´m indestructible. I sold my soul a long time ago to the devil and that means I´m immortal, sweetie".

Marianna already suspected it. She knew there had to be a reason that she hadn´t managed to kill him yet. As much as she had read in this destiny book, she had understood that this war was raging for centuries and she never accomplished to destroy him. But she also read that she had never given up and confronted him everytime. " And in case you haven´t noticed. I don´t care about that. I will try to protect my family as long as I still breath".

" What family? You´re the last one of your weak little group of soldiers", Khivar loved it to have the final say in something. And he enjoyed to see that pained expression on her face, the realisation that she had lost everyone again without the chance to save them. It was like a aphrodisiac to him.

Marianna averted her attention away from the scumbag under her and looked up. Scanning her surroundings she found Tess and Isabel lying face down closest to her, followed from Nolak and Kyle near the rocks over to Larek´s bleeding body, further down to Sean´s blood drenched face back to Max´s motionless shape. Tears were filling her eyes at the cruelsome picture and she remembered the last time she had seen that. Closing her she tried to keep herself from crying. She didn´t have the time for it now and it wouldn´t change anything anyway. No, she wouldn´t react emotional about that, not again. It was what he expected from her and she would play into his hands if she did that. Fueling the hate and the anger at him from anew she felt something comfortably changing in her. Opening her eyes she smiled at the shocked face when her body shifted itself into another form, namely that of Nemetona. " Didn´t expect that twist, did ya".

Khivar was thrown at the new developement. That face and those eyes he hadn´t seen for such a long time that he was surprised that he actually remembered it. It had been centuries since they had their last encounter. " No, but I´m not against it. In fact that doubles the pleasure for me".

" I´m sorry to disappoint you. You won´t have the time to feel pleasure in any kind", Nemetona took her arm from his throat and stood up from him. With a hard kick in his stomach she walked over to Corly, who was still sitting on the same exact spot. " Now it´s your turn. Give the bastard what he deserves. And don´t be gentle".

Corly stood up with shaking legs and grasped the arm of the person in her sister´s body. " What about you? Where are you going?".

Nemetona looked up at one of the biggest rock. She could feel the energy of the granilith pulsing from there. She had to use it, even if she couldn´t save the people she loved, she would at least taking care that everyone else would see the next day. Besides the human soldiers wouldn´t hold on any longer against the skins and she feared that more people would lose their life. " I´ve got another assigment to do".

Corly had a bad feeling after she heard the cryptic talk of this creature. But before she could say something the woman vanished from her sight, much to her astonishment. After that she turned her attention to her father. " Now it´s only me and you".

Meanwhile Nemetona appeared at some strange room with a glowing crystal in the middle. It was cold and dark in here, like a freezing cell. Looking around she noticed she was in a cave, because the walls around her were made out of stone. Walking towards the granilith and sensing the power humming under the surface, she had the sudden urge to use all this strength for herself. But as soon as the thought came it disappeared, thankfully. She wasn´t here for power, at least not for herself. She had a job to do and nothing could stop her from doing it. Touching the cool area, she felt for the first time that she could change something and make a difference. It was like this weapon was just made for her and only her. Unfortunately there wasn´t a manuel lying around that would show her what she should do to activate it and as much as she could see there wasn´t a button, a switch or even some strange glowing alien symbol to help her. Concentrating on her inner voice she hoped to find the answer there. She had to know somewhere how to use that thing or else they wouldn´t have built it for her. Listening intently on some sound, the only thing penetrating her ears were the cries and other noises from outside. Shaking her head she tried to shake off everything that could distract her in any way. Breathing evenly for a few minutes, she was close to getting dizzy from it. On the brink to give up, a flash hit her hard and almost knocked her flat on her ass. Seconds ticked by and she soaked up all the information flowing into her mind before dropping her hand and slumping on the cold ground under her. Finally she knew what she had to do and she felt sadness, because she saw her death clearly. With glistening eyes she touched her belly and the children there.

" I´m sorry to do that to you. But I have no choice. If there would be anything else I would do it gladly. Unfortunately this is the only way. I´m sorry for not giving you a chance to live for the second time and I´m sorry for being the worst mother. I didn´t even have the chance to enjoy my pregnancy", letting the tears fall freely she stroked the rounder curve there. It was finally visible that she was expecting. " I´m sure someday you will understand the choices I made, knowing the consequences. But sacrifices have to be made if you want to change something. I couldn´t save the people I loved, but I will be damned if I let this bastard take over this planet. I love you both and I hope you can forgive me".

Standing up she put both of her hands on the surface of the granilith and repressed the fear threatening to crush her. Her heart was pumping wildly in her chest while her mind opened up. Her body and the crystal formed a link to each other. Closing her eyes she let her energy flow into the devise and prayed that everything would be going smoothly. If she had to die she wanted it to be quick and painless, at least as painless as possible. Sensing the granilith starting up, she felt it pulling everything from her. It was like someone tried to part her soul from her body with brutal force. She clenched her teeths together to keep herself from crying out in pain. The more it took, the weaker she felt. Memories from many different lifes were shooting through her head and showed her what happened there. Things she forgot or didn´t remember anymore were clearly to see again. The time at the castle of King Arthur, at the side of Julius Cesar, listening to a reading of William Shakespear, riding along side of Joan D´arc, witnessing women getting burned as witches, the happy trekking with Rath through the wood on Antar and the Halloween party here on earth. Everything she ever experienced was sucked away from her, together with her feelings. And then she noticed the serenity filling her shell, the thought that every problem and her worries would be gone was making her happy. All she felt right now was this calmness that soon it would be over and she never had to concern herself with battles, having the responsibility over someones life and fearing anything. Besides she liked the thought that she would be with everyone meaning something to her again. She would see Michael, her mother and Lindsey. She would have the chance to be with them forever without having to be scared to lose them. Realizing that it was time for her to let go of her mortal life, she thanked everyone for loving her and hoping that those who survived today would remember her. On the brink to death she heard suddenly a noise that sounded like a rock was sliding over another rock. Opening her eyes she turned slowly her head around. Thinking she was hallizinating she blinked with her eyes. Strangly the person staring horrified at her was still standing there.

" Michael?".

Michael stormed towards her and caught her as soon as she collapsed. Sitting on the floor he cradled her in his strong arms while she changed back in her human shape. Watching her beautiful green eyes trying to stay open, he brushed the blonde hair from her face with one hand. " Why did you do it? You can´t just leave me here".

Maria lifted weakly her hand and stroked his cheek. She knew that she didn´t have much time left, but she wanted to touch him for the last time. A small smile played around her lips when she felt him. Tears were falling from his eyes and she wiped them away. " I´m sorry".

" No. Don´t close your eyes. Look at me. Come on, open your eyes!", but it was already too late and she couldn´t hear him anymore. Michael held her while her eyes stayed closed. Hiding his face on her chest, he started to cry violently. Rocking her like a baby he mourned her loss. He wanted to never let her go. Cursing himself for not finding her sooner, he didn´t notice the granilith beginning to glow and rotate. Well until the walls around him shook with the intensity of the power emitting from he crystal. Startled he looked up just in time to see it fly from its place and break through the ceiling. Stones and dirt fell down on him and he immediately covered Maria with his body. One big chunk hit him hard on the back of his neck and he toppled down over her.

In the mean time Corly had all hands full with fighting off her father. She had taken many hits and her body felt like one big bruise. Her face displayed cuts and wounds in all variations, not to mention the injuries at places on other parts. She was sure that she was over and done for. This was it, her last moments on earth. Making truce with god she prayed that she would be born again to maybe have another chance to finish him. Just barely keeping herself upright she glared at the man that gave her life. Expecting the last blow, she head a strange noise all of the sudden. Confused she turned to the sound and saw something glowing hovering over the rocks. Squinting her eyes she was blinded for a moment when everything around her was illuminated with a white light. Covering her eyes with her arm she waited until the light went away. Noticing the warmth leaving and the coldness returning she dropped her arm again. Shocked she witnessed Khivar bleeding heavily from many wounds on his body. Blood was pouring out of his mouth and he was pretty shaky on his legs. The stunned expression on his face was making her happy. Now she knew what the purpose of the granilith was. It was there to make him vulnverable. That was what Maria did. But that would mean she sacrificed her life for this. Pausing for a moment to honour her last effort, she picked up a dagger lying in front of her feet. Walking in Khivars direction she stopped before him while he finally lost the fight with cravity and crashed on his knees. Corly stared down at the poor creature he was becoming.

" Any last words you want to say before I´ll finish the job?".

Khivar´s eyes showed remorse for the first time. It was a shame to see such a ruthless man losing everything that was making him who he was. Now the meaning of the quote : The higher you endeavour to something, the deeper you fall, was clear. " I´m sorry".

Corly shook her head at his laughable attempt to make peace with her. She would never understand what had driven him to be this cruel monster that was enjoying to torture other people. " Too little, too late", with that she plunged the dagger as deep as she could into his none existent heart and turned the hilt around in full circle before watching him die. Wasted she slumped on the ground and covered her face with her bloody hands. Then she cried for all the people not being here to witness the end of the war and the end to a seemingly never ending nightmare.

TBC


	67. Chapter 67

**This is the end of this story and I want to thank everyone reading it and especially RedJewel2662 for leaving feedback everytime. Hope you enjoy the end just like every chapter before.**

**Chapter 66 Epilog**

It was a cold winter day. Roswell saw snow for the first time after ten years. The ground, the houses and buildings were covered with a white blanket while the christmas decoration gave a little color back to the town. Everything was draped with santa clauses, string of lights in green, red and white, reindeers and snowmans. The smell of gingerbread, cinnamon and eggnog was hanging in the air which matched the sound of christmas songs playing on the streets. People walked around with warm jackets, caps in all variations and gloves. Sometimes they even had red noses from the cold, not being used to this freezing temperatures. The mood was mixed after knowing that aliens were real and wanted to take over Roswell. Some of the people were grateful that they were still alive and safe from the threat and others feared that it would be just the start. But all in all almost everybody was in holiday cheers and tried to live like nothing had changed. The Parkers opened their restaurant on christmas eve for the families not able to afford a nice dinner like they did every year. Liz helped them, this year with her boyfriend at her side and the future in laws at her back. Alex and Isabel celebrated the festive day with his parents a new tradition for the family because usually the Whitmans were with the rest of the family in Canada at christmas day. Tess and Michael hadn´t left after everyone was released from the hospital and were still in the house of the Valentis together with their grandfather and their Cousin, who had been invited to join the family at their traditional dinner. Sean, Kyle and Jim were on the way to buy a christmas tree in the neighbor town while Amy, Tess and Laurie started cooking. The remaining two people were at the cemetery to visit a few graves to pay their respect and close open wounds or at least trying to. Both parted halfway and went into different directions.

Maria placed a porcelan figure on the tombstone of Lindsey. Her sister liked those and she was collecting everything of them. From pixies, fairies and unicorns over couples and families. Maria had chosen an angel this time, thinking it would fit more." Hey Lindsey. I´m back again. I even remembered to bring your christmas present. I´ll miss you terribly and especially now".

" Don´t cry because of me. I may be gone physically, but my soul is still with you".

Maria startled, shocked to see her little sister sitting on her tombstone with the white dress they had put on her. Her hair was curly and framing her brightly smiling face. Her feet were bare, but as a ghost she wouldn´t need those anyway. She wasn´t walking. " What? Oh damn I knew that I came off too well. Now I´m staring to hallucinate".

Lindsey swung her naked feet back and forth, just like she would sit comfortably on a chair and not on a tombstone in the middle of winter. Her twinkling eyes gave away her amusement about her big sister and her funny way. " You´re not. I´m real. Well as real as a ghost can be".

" What are you doing here?", Maria touched her forehead, trying to check if she was had a fever, because that couldn´t be real. However everything seemed normal, a little cold but fine. She was tempted to call after Michael, but he would think she lost her mind or worse tell it her parents. They were already worried enough, they didn´t had to worry about that, too.

Lindsey chuckled slightly, already knowing what the older girl was thinking. She could see it in her sisters eyes. " I´m the ghost of the future, trying to help you back on the right path", wriggling her arms and altering her voice so that she sounded deeper she tried to get the seriousness out of the situation. Unfortunately her older sibling seemed to have lost her good humour. " Okay here´s the deal. I can´t go into the light until I know that you´re not gonna destroy yourself from the guilt trip you have going on. Don´t think I haven´t noticed your depressed mood".

Maria felt tears shooting in her eyes. She could fool everyone else with her fake happiness or they let her believe that they would buy it, but obviously not her sister. " I´m so sorry for not keeping you safe. I can´t cope with the guilt of being unable to save you. It´s so hard trying to be happy when all I want to do is cry".

" Crying is good and helps. But don´t you dare feel guilty for something you had no control over. I´m not blaming you for what happened. There are things you can´t see beforehand or prevent. That´s the way of the world", Lindsey wanted to go to her sister and embrace her. But she didn´t have a body and she couldn´t leave her place. The sorrow hit her in waves and it made her sad what her dead had caused.

Maria had heard that sentence so often now and still it wouldn´t get through her thick skull, as she got told from her family rapidedly. But it wasn´t so easy to accept something you thought you could have prevented or change. She had tried to find the Granilith again and maybe find something in it to help her. Unfortunately it was gone. Disappeared after it had done its work. " But I should have done something. Anything to keep you all out of harms way. I screwed up. Again".

Lindsey shook her head and her hair was swinging from side to side with the motion. Suddenly the wind picked up speed and blew more cold through the trees around them. Even a little snow flew in the air from the gust. " I don´t want to hear that ever again. You saved so much people. Mom, Dad, Kyle and Sean are alive as are your friends and their family. You can´t imagine what would have happened had you failed. You were great and you´re a hero".

" I´m just a child. A child with no experience and two kids on the way", Maria was so sick of people telling her how great she was and how proud they were of her. She was unhappy with the way things went and she would need a lot of time and maybe a lot of kicking in her ass to get over the feeling.

Lindsey knew that she wouldn´t get far with that approach. She could talk to her sister until she was blue in the face and it wouldn´t change anything. But she would at least not break from the guilt any longer. " How are my nephew and my niece by the way?".

Maria opened her thick black jacket and showed her round belly covered in a nice black wrap blouse. She looked like she would house four children instead of just two. But maybe it was the way she was eating now that she had so much time at her hand with preparing the birth of the twins. " They´re good and extremely healthy. The doctor says that I´m ready to give birth any day now, which makes me kinda sad. I´m so used to being alone with the twins that I don´t want to share with anyone. Mom told me that she felt like that, too when she had Kyle and me. Dad had turned into a control freak and calls every five minutes to ask about my wellbeing. Like I´m deathly ill and on the brink to die. Even Sean is more friendly towards me, which is kinda freaky. Even though we called it truce, I´m not used to him being so careful around me. It´s unnatural".

" He grew up, like you all have", Lindsey was so proud of her family and the way they handled things, although destiny was not even on their side. Quite on the contrary, everything was pointing against them. And still they managed to survive this war and save a whole universe in the process.

Maria wanted to reply that it maybe applied to the others, but not to her. But she didn´t want to make the smaller girl angry. It wasn´t nice to anger the dead. So instead she swallowed her negative comment and focused on the goods things happening around her. " Yeah. He has a steady girlfriend now. Her name is Laurie and the cousin of Tess and Michael. They´re both very much in love, after less then two weeks".

Lindey looked to the right side at that to hide her smile. She couldn´t imagine her cousin so normal. He had been always a little bit crazy and she had liked it. She had loved her siblings, but they had been so boring sometimes. " A war can change a man".

" You´re telling me. Larek sold his UFO-Center to Michael. Alex and Isabel are taking a year time out to go tramping through America after the holidays, Max wants to join the army now while Liz will go with him as a paramedic. Kyle shocked our parents with the news to pack the college in and go to the police academy. Tess will follow him, even if her grandfather doesn´t know it yet. And Michael will probably blow a gasket as soon as he finds that out", everything was changing so fast that Maria was afraid to miss it. Everyone had a plan for the future. Well except her. The only thing she knew for sure was that she wanted to be good mother for her children. And that she didn´t want to move away from Roswell. But that wasn´t a problem any longer anyway.

Lindsey saw the uncertainty in her sister´s eyes. After the war was over now and nobody expected something from her, she felt useless. But that wasn´t the case. Destiny had still a few tricks up the sleeve. And being the mother of the next step of evolution and with that the mother of the most powerful children on earth would keep her occupied for centuries. " And what are your plans?".

Maria shrugged careless with her shoulders. She had pondered that question for so long and she was still not sure if she made the right decision. Maybe she should just let everything come her way and then deal with it. Her parents wanted her to go back to college, her friends told her what she wanted to hear and Michael had completely different ideas. " I had the chance to be Queen. This oracle guys came and offered me the position as defender of the current King and as his daughter. Thankfully I told them that I was neither of it and sent them to the rightful Queen. Corly deserves it more than me and I wouldn´t have been happy up there. My family and my home is here on earth".

" You´re evading my question. I ask what you have planned for the future", Lindsey folded her hands on her lap while her legs still swung back and forth. Her glance was fixed on her big sister and there was something in her eyes that was daring the older girl to try that stunt again.

Maria fidget with the zipper of her jacket, cursing her younger sibling for her fabulous insight. She had always be the one getting things out of her or she was the first to notice when something was wrong. Something that Maria had hated immensely and now more than ever. " As I said Larek sold his UFO-Center to Michael. What I didn´t mention was that it half of the building belongs to me, because now that Larek´s married to Corly and they´re both on Antar ruling over the planet, he won´t need it any longer. I thought about what to do with my half and came to the conclusion that I want to manage the museum".

Lindsey felt that there was a catch hidden somewhere in the statement. Maybe Michael didn´t want to stay in Roswell and live there, leaving his family behind in Tucson? Or it was something complete different. " Why do I hear a but in this?".

" Because you know me too well", Maria sighed. There was still something that was nagging at her and she hated to feel that way. " I don´t know how to manage a museum. I have no experience and no education, aside from my Highschool diploma. What do I have to offer? Besides I don´t even know where the relationship with Michael is leading at the moment. How can I decide something so huge if I can´t even decide what to do with my boyfriend?".

Lindsey smiled at her sister. She had more confidence in the ability from the other girl than she in herself. It was a wonder she got into college that way. " Okay. First thing first. Did you talk to Michael about the way your relationship may lead or are you too afraid to ask?".

Maria dropped her gaze on the ground below. She was ashamed to admit that not Michael was the problem in that situation but her. He acted mature and like the perfect boyfriend. She was the one putting her foot down while he wanted something more. He even suggested buying a house here to raise the children and being close to her parents. " Yeah we talked. He asked me to marry him and I refused. He´s a little disappointed but to proud to show it. I really hurt him. But I can´t be his wife just because he thinks it´s the right thing to do. I mean I want him to marry me because he loves me and can´t live without me. Not some tradition thing"

" He loves you. Everyone with eyes sees that. Believe me he would have asked you to marry him someday. The birth of your children just pushed it a little forward", Lindsey was glad to not feel jealousy or emotions in that direction, because she would feel it right now. She didn´t had and never would have the chance to experience love and especially that kind of passion which existed between her sister and Michael.

Maria was surprised to hear such grown up words coming out of her sisters mouth. When did they change their places? Because as much as she hated to admit it, it sounded logical. Maria knew that Michael loved her and he told her that often enough. And still there was something missing. " Can I have that written? I still think it´s his head doing the right thing and not his heart wishing for me to be at his side forever".

Lindsey rolled her eyes, something she had picked up from her sister. Maria always wanted to be sure to do everything perfect and please everyone. She had played the nice daughter for their parents, the supportive sister for her siblings and the crazy person for her friends. But sometimes even she made a mistake and she had taken it really head everytime, like she was a screw up. Knowing about her past life was making a few things clear. But the older girl had to finally realize that it was okay to be wrong or to stumble. " Hey do what you want. But don´t bitch when you let this chance go. Believe me not every guy is like Michael, who´s putting your life above him or loves you so much that he sat three days straight at your bedside to watch over you".

" Can we talk about something else? Something not reminding me what a bad person I am?", Maria knew all those things alone, she didn´t need some small teenager to point that out to her. She knew that Michael was the perfect match and that she would never love some other man like she loved him. But would he have asked her six month from now or even before everything went crazy, she wouldn´t have even needed a second to say yes. Now it seemed to her like he wanted her to be his wife because of obligations.

Lindsey crossed her legs and her arms while intently staring at her sister. She didn´t care what they talked about, they didn´t need to talk at all. But she knew that it was important to her sister to talk to someone not involved in this mess right now. " Have you decided what you want to name your twins?".

Maria rubbed her belly, a small smile playing around her lips. For the first time since she came to this place something bright was shining in her eyes. " We choose Lindsey for the girl and Rath for the boy", it was the easiest decision she and Michael had made so far. She wanted to have a reminder about her sister and he wanted to honor the man who gave up his own life to save his.

" That´s so sweet. You named your daughter after me", Lindsey smiled, really happy about that small gift.

Maria wanted to reply some smart ass remark to lift the sad atmosphere a little when she noticed that it was time for her to sit down. She couldn´t stand around so long any longer since she got so big. Looking around she spotted a small bench just across from her sister´s grave. Lifting her arm she slide the big thing towards her and melted the snow on it before taking a seat. Sighing contentedly, she lean her hurting back against the backrest. " Now that´s a lot better".

Lindsey glanced at the sides to see if anybody saw her sister using her powers. Watching an older pair walking through the path between the graves, she wondered why they weren´t shocked or afraid. They just winked at Maria before continueing their way. " Are you crazy? You can´t just use your alien mumbo jumbo".

" Why not? Everyone knows about us. It was on every tv channel for two weeks and we were like the new superhero´s. We even had to give interviews, which we refused mostly, because we hadn´t wanted to be treated different. Okay not everyone likes us and we hear a few nasty things, but most of the people accept us. Strangly the teenager and the children love us. A few wanted me to come to their birthday party. But I told them quickly that I´m neither WonderWoman nor SuperGirl or SpiderWoman", unfortunately that didn´t phrase them. Hollywood already knocked at their doors to make a movie about their life on Antar. It was a little crazy and sometimes she wondered when the whole chaos would stop and she was just plain Maria again.

Lindsey was stunned about that revelation. Who would have thought that it would get that far in a world where people were beaten or put behind bars because they had the wrong skin color or because they had the wrong nationality or the accent was not acceptable. " Isn´t it strange? I mean people aren´t just that understanding over night. Aren´t you afraid that not everyone is so peaceful about knowing that aliens are here on earth?".

Maria had thought hard and long about it, especially worrying about her children who would be growing up in a town where people made a living with aliens. But she was sure that Michael and she could protect their kids and would do everything to keep them safe. Besides she was already almost a member of the human army base outside of town. All the soldiers promised to keep an eye on her, her family and her friends. Nobody would dare to mess with her or the people she loved. " Believe me, before someone would even come close to us, he/she or they would be toast. We have enough support".

" I just want you to be careful. I don´t want to see you here so soon", Lindsey noticed that her time was slowly passing and she needed to go back. But she couldn´t go without getting a few things out first. " Listen, take it easy on Michael. Tell Mom and Dad that I love them, give hugs to Kyle and Sean. And don´t make me come back to haunt you because you didn´t take good care of you".

Maria noted the wind picking up speed around her and that it got a little bit colder. Looking up at the sky she saw a few clouds parting and a ray of sunshine fell down on the tombstone where her sister was sitting on. " I will do that. And you promise me that you don´t make too much trouble up there".

Lindsey grinned at her sister, knowing that it was a promise she couldn´t keep. She would raise hell no matter where she was, even if it was heaven. " I will try".

" Hey. Are you ready to go? It´s freezing and I´m hungry", a new voice was cutting into the conversation.

Maria turned her head to see Michael coming in her direction. He looked really good in his dark blue coat with the matching scarf and gloves, the black cloth slacks and the expensive leather shoes. He was looking as rich as he was, but she didn´t mind it any longer. " Just a moment. I just want to say goodbye to Lindsey", drawing her attention back to the grave, she saw that her sister had disappeared and at the place she had been sitting was just the porcelane angel. Standing up with a little help from her boyfriend she went to the tombstone, kissed her finger and then touched it. " Goodbye".

Michael waited until she was finished with her farewell. He knew that she took the death of her sister really hard and that she just put up a front for everyone else. But now he sensed some serenity in her that hadn´t been there before. The darkness wasn´t so crushing anymore and some light was visible. Maybe it had been a good idea to come here before the big christmas dinner. He finally had been having the chance to thank Rath for the sacrifice he had made and talked about a few things he feared would upset Maria. After all so much had changed that he was afraid that he would miss the changes or that he would stay behind. Thankfully he knew that he wasn´t alone and that he had so much important people at his side to help him. " Come on. I don´t feel my legs".

" Don´t rush me. We´re not even married and you already order me around", Maria huffed angrily in his direction. He could be so bossy sometimes. But she was glad that he finally treated her more like himself again. She had missed this commanding tone from him.

Michael watched her slowly walking towards him and he made sure that she didn´t slip on the ice under their feet. Grasping her arm, he held her while they made their way to the exit. Then it registered what she said. " You told me you didn´t want to marry me".

Maria snuggled her head at his shoulder while her hands snaked her way into his coat pockets. She loved this closeness and the feeling to enjoy their time together for once. " I said I didn´t want to marry you yet. That doesn´t mean I don´t want to marry you at all. I just thought it was bad timing. But now I think it´s a good idea"

" And what changed your mind?", not that Michael wasn´t glad about that change of heart. But it was still a little weird that she suddenly wanted something complete different. He just hoped that she thought she had to do it or she would lose him. He didn´t want to push her into something she didn´t was comfortable with. He could wait, even if it would take years.

Maria looked up at him and observed the way his breath was visible as soon as it left his mouth. Despite his red nose and the slight pink coloring of his cheek, she never found him more beautiful than at this moment. How could she ever doubt him and his intentions. " I thought about everything and I figured out that we don´t have any reason not to marry, except maybe our age. But my mother was just a year older than me when she married my father".

Michael smiled down at her and in that moment something old passed between them. Something that was long gone, but never really left completely. Kissing her temple, he pressed her tighter at his body. How could he say no to that cute face. " So if I would ask you again, say maybe tonight in front of our whole family, you would answer with yes this time?".

" Maybe", Maria grinned mischievously, not quite giving into him yet. After all he behaved like a peacock when he thought he won and he would do this little dance, everyone found so embarassing to watch. Especially her and Tess.

Michael stopped in his tracks at that and surprised his girlfriend in the process. Putting his hands on her belly, he bent down until he was on the same level as his children. " Did you hear that? Your mommy just accepted my proposal. Can you believe it?".

Maria had slight problems to keep her laughter in. It was the first time that she felt a little more carefree and not so depressed. Stroking over Michael´s head, she wondered why she loved this dork so much. He drove her crazy, made her pondering her mental health once in a while and most of the time they couldn´t agree on something. And yet she never felt so much attraction to someone like she did with him. " You´re so silly".

" Yeah, you´re doing that to me", rising in a standing position again he wrapped his arms around her to pull her closer to him. Unfortunately his children were a tad bit in the way. But he still found a way to embrace her, even though it was a little difficult. " Did I tell you how much I love you?".

Maria glanced above her, acting like she was thinking really hard. For a few seconds she was frozen in that stance before she turned to her boyfriend. " No. Not today".

Michael framed her face with both hands, looking in her emerald eyes, which seemed to have gotten that happy twinkle back, he couldn´t imagine to ever get tired of watching her. He wanted to wake up every morning with her at his side and go to sleep that way. Damn, he was really turning into a real sap. Strangly he didn´t mind any longer. " I´m sorry. I have to correct that immediately", kissing her slightly freezing lips, he didn´t see the people walking past them and watching the couple with amusement. Well at least until he and Maria came up for air. " I love you".

" I love you, too", Maria noticed the heat rising in her cheeks, a great contrast to the remaining parts of her face, which were almost frozen. She finally registered that they weren´t alone any longer. " I think we should go. We have an audience".

Michael looked around and realized she was right. Laying an arm around her shoulder he steered her in the direction of his car. Smiling at everyone passing them, he pointed at Maria with pride and told them that she was his soon to be wife. Shaking her head, Maria wondered why she ever considered marrying him in the first place. But then she remembered that she loved him, so that made up for his silly behaviour. Everything else they would have to learn with time and a little help from their families and friends.

The End


End file.
